The Child of Sun and Moon

by Darkest Night

Decisions

There was definitely something going on.

Keeping his head straight as he walked from Donut Joe's diner to school, Starjumper kept his ears open for the distinct sound of a specific pony's hooves, the unicorn that had been following him for the fourth day in a row. He'd first noticed the unicorn on Tuesday, after his lesson with Summer Dawn ended and he came out to get his meal from the Tasty Treat. The stallion had covertly followed him from the restaurant back to his apartment, and it alerted him because that selfsame stallion had been at Donut Joe's diner that morning and had followed him to school. It was a fairly large older male unicorn with a grayish-brown coat and black mane and tail cut short. He always wore a black bowler hat, of all things, and yesterday he'd been wearing a coat and carrying an umbrella due to the rain. He'd been outside the diner each of the last four mornings and outside the Tasty Treat on Tuesday afternoon, and the previous four days, he followed Starjumper literally right to the door of the library...just not too closely. He was staying back just far enough to keep Starjumper in sight but not so close that he thought Starjumper would notice him.

And perhaps he might not have, if Starjumper was like most other ponies. His training with teleportation made him far more observant than the average pony, far more aware of what was around him, and he'd noticed that the same pony was in a place he visited and then followed him from that place the first time it repeated itself. Wednesday morning had confirmed it, Thursday morning had given him the chance to get a look at the stallion without him knowing he was being watched, and now, the fourth morning he was being followed, now Starjumper was considering just who that pony was and what he was after.

He wasn't a Royal guard. Starjumper could tell that much. He was a bit too pudgy to be in the EUP, and his mane and tail didn't show the telltale residual effects of being under the effect of the Uniform Spell, the spell that the guards used to all look the same. Same coat color, same mane color, same mane style. The guards used that spell to all look alike to make it harder for a potential enemy to single one of them out, and make them harder to bribe or extort, since they all looked the same and a potential criminal wouldn't know exactly who he was talking to. That spell left lingering effects on a guard even after it wore off, effects that a skilled magician could sense, and this pony did not have those lingering traces of magic infusing his coat and mane.

If he wasn't a Royal Guard, then that meant that he was not friendly. Princess Twilight wouldn't hire a freelancer to keep a passive eye on him. That pony was not following him as a friend, so that meant that he was following him as an enemy.

And Starjumper Astra didn't like being tailed by hostile ponies.

He hadn't quite decided what he wanted to do about it yet, but he was definitely going to do something about it. And it was not going to be pretty.

Taking a sip of his coffee, he passed the Royal Palace and walked onto the manicured lawn of the school, and sure enough, the pony was back there. About a half a block behind him, behind Fancy Pants no less, who was walking towards the school as quickly as he could and still look dignified. Summer Dawn's father was carrying a pair of saddlebags with his magic, and when he looked in Starjumper's direction, he changed course and came right towards him.

Well...this was new. Fancy Pants and Fleur de Lis had lurked around Starjumper for a couple of weeks after he agreed to tutor Summer Dawn, no doubt trying to get into a position where they could "accidentally" cross paths with him and strike up a conversation, but now he was being a tad more direct.

Seeing him made Starjumper consider the possibility that it was Fancy Pants that hired that tailer pony. Keeping an eye on the stallion tutoring his daughter, trying to find out more about him. He certainly had the money to do it, he was the richest pony in Canterlot.

"I say, my dear stallion, hold up!" he called loudly, very nearly breaking into a canter. "I'm terribly glad I ran into you!"

"What do you need, sir?" he asked innocently.

"Do be a gentlecolt and give this to Summer Dawn. She picked up her mother's saddlebags by accident this morning," he said, offering the saddlebags in Starjumper's direction. Starjumper took command of it, the socialite's magic replaced by his own around the saddlebags. "And tell her that her mother will pick up her saddlebags from her at lunch. Now I do apologize for being so terribly rude, but I am late for a very important appointment! Good day, my good stallion! And thank you for saving me precious time!"

And with that, Fancy Pants turned and hustled towards the Royal Palace's main gate, trying very hard to run without looking like he was running.

Starjumper regarded the bags. They did look like the ones Summer Dawn had carried all week, and the fact that she tended to switch them out for different ones from time to time to keep up with the latest Canterlot fashion explained how she could pick up the wrong ones. He also remembered Summer Dawn telling him that her father was a notorious prankster, and it almost made him morbidly curious if a smoke bomb would go off if he opened the saddlebag flap.

He'd let Summer Dawn dare that little adventure.

He entered the library and made his way to his favorite table, and found Summer Dawn already there, looking quite perplexed as she pulled a very fancy dress out of her saddlebag. She glanced up at Starjumper when he approached, then gave a relieved laugh when he held up her saddlebags.

"Thank Celestia, I thought Dad played a prank on me!" she said, taking command of them with her magic, the aura around them shifting from gold to pink.

"He all but chased me down out on the campus," Starjumper mused. "I thought he was trying to waylay me again."

"I told him to stop that," she winked at him, putting the clothes back in her mother's saddlebag and then pulling several scrolls and an ink pot from her own.

"He said that your mom would stop by during lunch and pick up her saddlebags," he relayed.

"Okay," she said, unrolling a scroll and putting weights on the ends out of her saddlebag to keep it open. Starjumper knew enough about her to know that it was all for show. She didn't have to read anything with him there to explain everything to her. "Alright, we picking up where we left off?"

He nodded as he sat down beside her, then cast the newest spell he'd learned. A line of magic shot up from his horn over them, stopped, then spread into a dome that enclosed the table. It was a dome of silence spell, which would let them talk without disturbing the other library patrons. Princess Twilight had sent him the spell on Tuesday evening, and he devoted most of Wednesday morning and part of the afternoon learning how to cast it. "There we go," he declared.

"I want to learn that spell!" she said eagerly.

"Later, we have a lot of more important work to do," he answered. "Alright, let's run down transfiguration from the beginning."

"No sweat."

They'd been working on the spell most of the week, and both of them were doing so. Transfiguration was one of the spells that Starjumper hadn't learned, so this was new magic to him. And he'd made marked progress for the three days he'd been working on it, gaining a grasp on the fundamental mechanics of the spell and managing to cast its most basic version, a spell that changed something into something else that was very similar to it in substance and consistency. The spell would let him change a non-living object within its major kingdom, mineral to mineral and vegetable to vegetable, but only change it into something that closely matched its original condition. He couldn't use the spell to turn a piece of glass into a gold nugget, but he could turn a gold nugget into a silver nugget, or change a log into a wooden chair or an orange into a plum. The most basic version of the spell was charged, meaning that it wore off and the object would return to normal, but the advanced variants of the spell were permanent.

The most advanced version of the spell, and something he wasn't sure he'd be able to cast, worked on living beings. And it too was permanent, at least within certain boundaries. Using that spell, he could change himself into a griffon or a dragon, but he'd retain his horn because of how the spell worked, because it was an integral part of the very substance of who and what he was. The spell didn't alter the substance of what the subject was, so Starjumper would still be a Lykan even if he used the spell on himself, and would change into a thestral at moonrise no matter what shape the spell gave him. The main limitation of that version of the spell was that it could only change something alive into something else alive. It wouldn't change a pony into a park bench, but it could turn a pony into a ladybug.

Oddly enough, versions of the spell would change inanimate objects into living things, but those spells all had the same limitation: the spell was always permanent. He could chage a rock into a bird, and it would never change back. Once life was bestowed upon something using magic, it could not be taken away. There were very specific spells that mimicked the appearance of life in a transfigured object, allowing a unicorn to change a rock into something that looked and acted like a bird, but it wouldn't be truly alive, and thus could be changed back. Those kinds of constructs were called golems in magical science, inanimate objects made to resemble life and bestowed with animation, and constructs that imitated an intelligent being like a pony was called a homonculus.

At least if that was allowed. Spells that created a homonculus were strictly forbidden by Equestrian law. It was a crime to create one. It was a crime to even own the spell without explicit permission from the Princess herself.

Only the most powerful of magicks could change something living into something non-living, like the Elements of Harmony, but not even those powerful relics could remove the life from the changed creature. It would take magical artifacts as powerful as the Elements to do something like turn Discord to stone, as they had done in the distant past, but being subjected to that mighty spell was not fatal. And if the spell were ever reversed, then the subject would be alive, in the exact same state they were in when the spell changed them. So, the Elements could turn Starjumper to stone for a thousand years, and when they changed him back, he'd be the same age he was when he was turned to stone...and by then would probably be completely insane, since he would be awake and aware for those thousand years of being trapped in the prison of his own petrified body.

Needless to say, Starjumper found the sphere of transfiguration spells to be quite fascinating, and he'd enjoyed studying them. It was new magic, magic not in his family library, and he could see some real use for it. Using this magic, he could just cast a spell to make a piece of furniture, and the most advanced versions of the spell would allow him to create some very complex objects consisting of multiple types of material, like a padded, upholstered chair. It contained wood, feathers, fabric, and metal rivets, and those disparate materials increased the difficulty of the spell when it was cast. The more complex the object, the more magical power it took to transform something into it.

And that explained to him why the most advanced and powerful versions of the spell worked on living things, because living things were exceptionally complex objects. Muscle, bone, skin, sinew, teeth, organs, they were all insanely complex.

The spell was right up his alley, because it depended on the imagination of the caster. The caster had to be able to accurately and completely picture or imagine the object he wanted to create with transifiguration, and his skill with teleportation definitely applied itself to this magic. He was able to imagine an object with exacting detail and clarity thanks to his mnemonic training, and that allowed him to transfigure up some seriously intricate objects.

So, since this was new magic for both of them, they'd been working on it together. And he could admit that he was impressed by Summer Dawn. She had managed to cast the most basic version of the spell within three days, and now she was working on mastering one of the five required uses of the spell to pass the block of instruction, changing a block of wood into a fully formed dinner plate. The more detailed and intricate the plate, the higher the score she would receive.

Her tongue sticking out a tiny bit, Summer Dawn's eyes were focused on the small piece of wood sitting on the table, no doubt considering the spell parameters. They weren't allowed to practice spells in the stacks, it was too disruptive to the study of the ponies around them, but there were three rooms in the library where active spellcasting practice was permitted. Those were "magic labs" of a sort in the library, rooms with just a table and chairs in them that would allow students to practice the spells they studied in the stacks. Starjumper had noticed the first time they used one that the walls in them were reinforced, and there were a few very old burn marks and faint scars on the walls from prior students' more interesting spellcasting failures.

"Okay, I think I got it," she said. "I can see the plate in my mind. I know its size, I can see the decorative design on it. I see the gold leaf rim around the edge."

"What makes this more demanding than the basic use of the spell?"

"I'm changing the object's mass," she replied immediately. "The plate will be lighter than the block of wood it was made from."

"Stage it."

Her horn flared with pink magical energy, and she built the staged spell. The librarians didn't object to them staging spells, since they didn't actively cast them. He couldn't see her work with his eyes, but he could sense it, sense the matrix of the spell she built, one of the first skills that he had taught her. "Correct," he intoned.

She beamed at him. "Okay, lemme practice this a little while, get comfortable with this matrix. It's more complicated than I expected."

"Yeah, I have to admit, this spell is pretty involved," he agreed. "No wonder it's taught in your final year. But they don't require us to learn the most useful versions of the spell."

"You're supposed to learn them on your own," she told him absently, staring at the piece of wood. "It's about getting you interested enough in the basic spell to where you study the more advanced versions and applications on your own. That's why they award bonus points if you can cast variants or use advanced applications not taught in class in the exams. You know, like encouraging us to develop study habits to go beyond the curriculum. They've been doing it since eighth grade."

"I'm not sure I agree with that approach," Starjumper grunted.

"It worked on you, didn't it?" she asked.

He gave her a firm look, and she just grinned at him and winked.

"Don't get sassy," he retorted, which made her laugh.

They spent the rest of the morning working on transfiguration, and Starjumper felt that both of them made some marked progress. Summer Dawn started working on the next variant of the spell after demonstrating aptitude with the one she learned yesterday, and Starjumper was working on the most difficult version since he'd already mastered all the other variants. Really, the only difficult version of the spell was the final one for any pony that knew how to study magic, knew magical theory and spellshaping techniques.

That was the most important thing his father ever taught him. Not how to cast spells, but how to understand the spells he studied, how to see the similarities in the way magic worked between spells and learn new spells based on what he knew of spells he could already cast. The learning method was called the School Theory, and it was the very first thing his father taught him, even before teaching him the simplest of spells. That method allowed him to learn new magic quickly by relating it to other magic, a process by which spells were grouped into categories, or "schools," based on how the magic that powered them had to be manifested and applied. Spells with different purposes were often related to one another based on how magic was applied to create the effect, and if one learned a spell from one category, that knowledge could be applied to other spells in the same category. It just came down to taking the basic application of how the magic was manifested and tailoring it to produce that specific effect.

When the lunch bell rang, they both stopped what they were doing and left the table, leaving their books and materials at the table, which was a warning to the students that would be coming to the library for afternoon self-study that the table was taken. Summer Dawn did pick up her mother's saddlebags and carried them along in her magic, however. Starjumper walked out with Summer Dawn, and saw Fleur de Lis standing just down the steps of the library's entrance. She advanced on them quickly, coming up the steps, and seeing the two of them together, Starjumper would almost think that they were sisters instead of mother and daughter. Fleur de Lis looked very youthful, didn't look anywhere near as old as she was, and was still quite slim and graceful. She could still make tons of money as a supermodel if she wanted to, she hadn't lost a single step in the beauty department. And standing together, it reminded him how much Summer Dawn resembled her mother. Seriously, if Summer Dawn dyed her mane and tail the same shade of pink as her mother's, they'd be hard to tell apart with a casual glance.

"So, are you finally going to introduce us, daughter?" Fleur de Lis asked, giving Starjumper an earnest smile.

"Mom, this is Starjumper. Star, this is my mom, Fleur de Lis."

"A pleasure to meet you," she said in a silky voice, touching hooves with him in greeting. "Let me tell you how much we approve of what you've done for our daughter. She's never been so confident about school," she said with a smile. "And the spells she shows us when she comes home! You have turned her into quite the accomplished magician! You are truly a gifted tutor."

"Thank you, ma'am," he said modestly. "I can't take all the credit, though. If she wasn't so good at magic, I'd look a whole lot worse."

"Star!" Summer Dawn said with a laugh.

"And she has said you are teaching her shield spells?"

"We've already started on them," he answered. And that was true enough, he'd started her on the spell theory behind shield spells on Tuesday, and she'd grasped that theory very quickly, proving how smart she was. Today, he was going to teach her the spell matrix of the most basic shield spell, the planar shield. "She'll be learning her first spell matrix today," he added.

"I am? Awesome!" she said in sudden glee.

"I think you're ready," he nodded with a neutral expression. His eyes wandered past the two of them, and he saw the bowler hat pony standing at the edge of campus, at the corner of the wall surrounding the Royal Palace. He didn't react, didn't keep his eyes on the pony, he simply looked back to Summer Dawn's mother casually. His horn flared with golden magic, and to the bowler hat pony's vision, he took command of the saddlebags and offered them to Fleur de Lis. But odds are he missed the spell he cast simultaneously with that levitation spell, a true doublecast by casting both at the same time, a rather unique spell that he locked on that bowler hat. The spell was designed by his father, a variant of a simple auditory illusion spell that caused the spell to emit a particular sound, but a sound which was far too highly pitched for pony ears to hear it. It was, however, audible to a thestral. His father had tailored the spell to allow Nightsong to quickly find him when he was out in town, because the sound was blatantly obvious to any threstral within four blocks of the spell's focus. If she heard that sound, she knew that Comet Tail needed her to come to him. It wasn't really meant to be a tracking spell to hunt down tailers, but it was going to work well for Starjumper in this situation. He'd charged the spell to last until sunrise tomorrow, giving him plenty of time to hunt down bowler hat pony after dark.

The side effect of the spell was that it drove bats nuts, the sound irritated them and made them very aggressive. After nightfall, bats would surround whatever building the hat was in, and if bowler hat pony came out wearing it, the bats would attack the hat to silence it, to make the sound stop. When Starjumper came out tonight to find that pony, the swarm of bats over bowler hat pony's house would tell him which direction to go if wasn't close enough to hear the sound himself.

The spell could only be cast on inanimate objects, and lucky for him, that unicorn seemed quite attached to that hat.

"Thank you very much. I was quite surprised when I found schoolbooks in the saddlebag I left on the kitchen table," she chuckled. "I thought her father had switched them on me."

"Summer Dawn did tell me a couple of stories about her father," he said mildly, which made Summer Dawn laugh.

"They're true," she grinned. "And I wish I had more time to get to know you, Starjumper, but I need to get these saddlebags where they're supposed to go before noon. Making an appointment with Silver Needle can be a beast sometimes, he's always so busy, and I need both of these dresses altered by Monday," she told them, settling the saddlebags over her back and buckling them on. "Perhaps you'd like to come to dinner on Sunday?"

"I think Summer Dawn told you the answer I'd give to that," he said calmly.

She gave a titter of laughter. "She did. But that doesn't mean I still won't ask," she said with a smile. "And consider that an open invitation, Starjumper. We would be overjoyed to have you over, to learn more about the stallion that has turned our little girl's grades around. And please, keep it up. I can't tell you how much I love to see this new confidence in my daughter," she said with a loving smile at Summer Dawn, reaching over and putting her hoof under Summer Dawn's chin lovingly. "Your lessons have been good for her in more ways than just her grades. Will you be home at the usual time, Summer?"

"Most likely," she replied, blushing a bit over the praise.

"I'll tell Withers," she nodded. "He'll be setting dinner precisely at sunset."

"Okay. Thanks, Mom," she replied.

She gave an elegant nod, then turned and started down the stairs.

"Wanna go to the cafè?" Summer Dawn offered. "My treat."

"I have something to do," he answered. "And I may be a little late coming back from lunch."

"Don't let them catch you trying to sneak back in."

He gave her a level stare, and she burst out laughing.

Summer Dawn didn't bother going down the steps, she showed off a tiny bit by levitating herself. She rose up a goodly distance and then started drifting in the direction of the restaurant, and more than a few ponies who'd come out of the buildings were looking up at her...a tad wistfully.

Starjumper returned to his apartment rather than eat lunch in the cafeteria, a disruption of his usually rigid schedule, mainly because he wanted to pull bowler hat pony somewhere that he could get a very good look at him without the pony knowing it. Starjumper entered the apartment and prepared what he needed for the spell, taking a small mirror and setting it so that its face was pointing at the window beside the door, then went up to the upstairs writing desk, a position completely out of sight from any direction but the Royal Palace. He put another mirror on the desk, and then he sat down at it and cast another spell.

This was the most advanced spell he knew outside of teleportation, and it took him a while to build the spell matrix and then release it. The mirror on the desk in front of him started to glow with golden magical light, and then his reflection vanished from the mirror and a view of the campus and street took its place. He was looking through the mirror set by the window downstairs, which he had placed so he could see the likely place where bowler hat pony would lurk to wait for him to leave the apartment.

This was scrying magic, and it was an extremely advanced and demanding magical discipline. This was a spell that only dedicated unicorn magicians could learn and use.

A few minutes later, he was proven right. Bowler hat pony wandered into the field of view of the mirror, and Starjumper adjusted the magic to center him in his view, then the image enlarged as the magic zoomed in on him, focused on him. That was part of the spell, the ability to control what he could see through the mirror as long as what he wanted to see was visible to the mirror's face. He was a middle aged pony, a bit pudgy, his cutie mark was a magnifying glass, and looked...weathered. Unlike most ponies his age, he wore no beard or moustache. He only wore the hat, and Starjumper could see that the hat was old, but it was also made of quality materials and was well maintained. That was not a cheap hat. His mane and tail were also expertly styled, Starjumper noted. It was a very simple style, but it was done by an expert stylist. Again, that took money.

So, this was not a poor unicorn. This stallion had money, money to afford the hat, afford having a very good manestylist cut his mane. It told Starjumper that if this pony was hired to tail Starjumper, then he was a professional investigator. He was paid to do things like this, he was paid well, and that meant that he was good at his job.

He watched bowler hat pony for several moments, until he got a break. The stallion took a small pad from under his hat and wrote something down in it using a very small pencil, his horn glowing in a soft emerald green radiance--important detail, knowing the color of a unicorn's magic would identify them from a distance--and then took off his hat, put the pad back in, and then put his hat back on.

Starjumper had seen what he needed to see.

Staring intensely at the image in the mirror, he ended the spell, then took a deep cleansing breath and closed his eyes. His horn flared with brilliant golden magic, and he cast another spell, this one not quite as advanced, but one that was extremely useful. He opened his eyes again and looked into the mirror, which was glowing with golden magic, and an image appeared.

A memory, projected into the mirror that he could see with his eyes instead of in his mind's eye.

Starjumper had been very wise in his choice of vantage points for his mirror. As he suspected, when bowler hat pony wrote in his notepad, the reflection of what he was writing was visible in the window of the bakery in front of which he stood. The spell allowed him to create a visual image of anything he had seen, and since he had seen that image just seconds ago, the detail of the image in the mirror was so exact that it was almost like a picture, including being able to make out the hornwriting in the reflection. It was backwards, reversed due to the reflection, but Starjumper could read reversed writing. He could also read upside-down writing, but that wouldn't be much of a surprise to anypony that had seen him sitting on a wall or ceiling. All threstrals were quite skilled at reading upside-down writing.

11:36: Subject entered apartment. Deviation from standard routine.

That answered it. He was a private investigator. But the question that arose from that answer was who hired him to follow Starjumper around.

He would find out tonight.

He ended the spell and stood up, then came down to the first floor and pulled a few random books out of his bookshelf, making it look like he returned home to get something he forgot. He stepped out of the apartment with the books in tow in his magic, closed and locked the door, and started towards the building holding the cafeteria, returning to his standard routine.

He had just enough time to grab a quick bite to eat in the cafeteria, then he returned to the library just before the afternoon bell rang. Summer Dawn was again already at the table, grinning at him from behind the dome of silence that was still active over the table. "You made it," she said as he sat down, setting the new books on the table.

"I had to go back to the apartment and pick up some books," he told her.

"I see that. Now stop goofing off and check my staging."

"Pushy, pushy," he drawled, which made her laugh.

"Hey, I'm paying you enough money to let me be pushy."

"We're on school time, not tutor time," he returned.

"We're working on a school spell."

"On my time," he retorted. "You should be paying me extra."

"You're already getting more than half my allowance every week," she challenged with amused eyes.

"You made that deal. I can't help it if you're bad at business."

"Hey!" she barked, and when she saw his slight, bland smile, she laughed helplessly.

They made some real progress that afternoon on transfiguration, and when the final bell rang, they packed up and changed venues. They returned to his apartment, and sure enough, bowler hat pony was there when they came out of the library and returned to the spot in front of the bakery, which would give him just the barest hint of a vantage point into the front windows facing the Promenade. He'd only see one of them if they were standing at the window due to the distance and height difference, but that position allowed him to see both the front door and the balcony door.

This pony was definitely a pro.

But he had more important things to worry about. Summer Dawn was quite eager as she bounced into the apartment, setting her saddlebags aside and plopping herself down on her cushion without being told. He put his books and saddlebags away, then he sat on the cushion facing her. "Shield spells," he said, which made her grin in anticipation. "I told you once that they're not as difficult as you might think to cast, but what makes them advanced magic is how many variables you have to manage with them, on top of the fact that they tend to go very wrong very fast if you mess up the casting. This spell isn't lenient or forgiving, Summer. Make the tiniest mistake in your matrix, and the spell fizzles. If the dimensions you're imagining don't match the magic you're putting into the spell, be it not enough magic or too much magic, it fizzles. And like I told you on Monday, if a foreign object gets into the spell's area as it forms, it fizzles.

"Shield spells aren't very difficult to cast, but where this spell gets you is in making it last once you cast it," he continued. "Whether you charge it or you channel it, this spell takes a lot of magic to maintain. Easy to cast, hard to maintain. I told you once that I can't create a spell that will last more than a couple of hours, but that was a spell that covered the entire tower. I could make a very small shield that might last six or seven hours, but that's it. Your shields will last considerably longer, and the shields you actively channel will be far stronger than any shield I could ever hope to make, because you're stronger in magic than I am.

"There are five different versions of this spell, Summer, and each one has a different purpose, but all shields fall into one of three categories: solid, directional, and magic. Whether a shield is magic or not can overlap with the other two, so a shield can be solid and non-magic, or solid and magic. The most basic version is a simple planar shield, a flat plane of magical force that you manifest. The advantage of this version of the spell is it takes the least amount of magic to both manifest and maintain, but the drawback is that it only protects a small area, so you have to make sure whatever you're trying to stop hits the shield. Got it so far?"

"Yup!"

"Good. The different kinds of shields are planar, angular, arc, spherical, and irregular. Those names describe the shape of the shield. A planar shield is just a flat side, like a pane of glass. An angular shield is two sides joined together at an angle. An arc shield is a section of a spherical shield, like cutting a ball into pieces. A spherical shield is just that, it completely surrounds a fixed point. And an irregular shield is a shield whose shape isn't one of the other four. A shield formed as a cube would be an irregular shield. Now, angular and irregular shields are only for practice, Summer. Don't ever try to use one for real, because they're actually easy to break at the angle where the planes join. Any serious shield you ever cast should be planar, arc, or spherical only."

"Got it."

"The three forms of shields define what they do. A solid shield is just that, it creates a barrier in both directions. It can't be crossed in either direction. A directional shield will allow something to pass through in one direction, but not the other, like that shield I created that day Nova was hanging around the tower. And a magic shield only stops magical energy. Solid objects and other forms of natural energy, like fire or electricity, can pass through a magic shield, but a spell cannot, even if the spell mimicks one of those natural forces. So, a natural bolt of lightning will go through a magic shield, but a bolt of lightning created by a magic spell will not."

"That makes sense."

"And that's an overview of shield spells. It's not that difficult in theory, and the spell actually isn't that hard to cast. But like I said, where this spell gets you is in making it stay once you cast it," he said with a slight smile. "Now, there's one final thing you have to know about shield spells, and that's a simple rule. A channeled shield is far stronger than a charged shield," he said strongly. "So, Summer, if you're ever using a shield for real, like you're in danger or you're protecting yourself from a falling brick or something, you channel the shield. A charged shield is for silly things like keeping Nova out of the apartment," he said, which made her laugh.

"Easy easy," she said confidently. "Five shapes of shields that you can create in five different ways, and a channeled shield is stronger than a charged one."

"Almost," he nodded. "There are actually four different forms, solid, directional, magical, and magical directional. A magical shield is solid by nature when it comes to magic. It won't allow magic to pass through in either direction."

"Oh, okay. I thought there was a difference between a magical shield and a solid magical shield."

"No, but it was a logical assumption to make, so don't feel bad about being wrong," he told her. "Now, let me walk you through the spell matrix for the most basic form of shield, the solid planar. Pay attention while I stage it."

And that started nearly four hours of constant practice, as he first taught her the spell matrix, and then she spent the rest of the day trying to duplicate it. Once she had the matrix memorized, he backed off and kept an eye on her as he wrote a report for Princess Twilight, laying on the wall over his writing desk rather than sitting in front of it. She didn't successfully cast the spell the entire session, and when the clock gave its three loud gongs, she gave a growl of frustration. "Aww, I was getting close!" she complained. "I almost had it!"

"You did, but three bells is three bells," he said evenly. "And you know the rules. Pack up your things."

"Alright," she said grumpily, collecting up a few books in her magic and stuffing them into her saddlebags. "And I know the other rule, even if I hate it."

"No practicing on your own unless I say you can, and you know what I'm about to tell you."

"Don't practice the spell," she sighed in frustration.

"She can be taught," he quipped dryly, but she didn't laugh. It was more of a glare. "Work on transfiguration over the weekend. You have that spell matrix down, you just need practice using it. And don't be too mad. You did almost have it, so I'm sure you'll manage to cast it early on Monday. Then you'll have all afternoon to practice it."

"Monday isn't today," she complained.

"I'll have you know that it took me almost a full moon to cast my first viable shield spell after my father taught it to me," he told her evenly. "So all things being considered, you're learning it so fast that I'm almost shocked. Far faster than I did."

She did give him a bit of a smile at his praise. "Well, I do have a good teacher," she said.

"Less schmoozing, more packing," he said crisply, which made her laugh.

"You mind some company at the Tasty Treat tomorrow?" she asked.

"Are you fishing for extra tutor time?" he challenged.

"Mmmmaybe," she admitted.

He gave her a tart look, which made her laugh again. "I have a little time tomorrow afternoon," he succumbed. "A couple of hours. I guess you can practice while I finish writing that report for school."

"Awesome! I'll be over at three! Is three okay with you?"

"Yes."

"Great, we'll go have dinner and then I can try to cast the spell before you throw me out!"

"I am going to throw you out now," he warned as he pointed at the balcony door with his hoof, which was closest to them. That made her grin impudently. "Now out with you, sassy mare. I have something I need to get done before sunset."

"You always have something you need to get done before sunset," she complained as she opened the door with her magic. She stepped out onto the balcony, enshrouded herself with her magic, and the lifted up and out of view quickly.

Well, that wasn't the first time she left in a huff, but it was happening more and more often lately. She hated leaving when she was in the middle of learning a new spell, especially since he forbade her from practicing it when he wasn't there to supervise. Given how powerful she was, if she caused a spell to misfire, the results could be potentially explosive. Especially with the power of the spells she was learning from him, since they required so much magic to cast.

Almost against his will, his mother's words flittered through his mind. It's your secret to keep, and it's also your secret to reveal.

He looked at the balcony door, and for the first time in his entire life, he actually seriously considered doing it. If he told her, she wouldn't have to leave, she'd have more time to practice. It would make things easier for him, since he wouldn't have to lie to her all the time, and that was really starting to bother him. He did like her, and it felt...it felt wrong deceiving her.

But, then the reasons he kept his secret asserted themselves in his mind. A single pony that knew put him at risk if that pony told others, and she was a society pony. There was no telling if she could keep a secret like that, the temptation to tell somepony would be absolutely overpowering. And there was no telling how knowing that secret would change how she saw him. It was entirely possible that she ran screaming from the apartment and never came anywhere near him again.

And that would crush him.

And then there was the issue of the thestrals and the Nightlands. She may not appreciate being pulled into that.

No. It was best for everypony involved if he kept the secret. It was safest for him, safest for her, and she'd probably prefer being kept in a state of blissful ignorance.

He put it out of his mind as the clock gave the second warning, causing him to retreat to the spot in the apartment he knew could not be seen through any window, giving him the utter privacy he needed for the change that was coming. He had other things to worry about tonight, mainly one bowler hat pony that was going to have a lot of very angry bats swarming around his house in just a very short while. His task tonight was to get his hooves on that notepad and see if it held the identity of the pony's employer, and the first step to that objective was to find where bowler hat pony lived.

After he changed, Starjumper waited for it to get completely dark outside, then he advanced up to where he could get a look outside. Bowler hat pony was gone, he saw, and a quick look around the city showed him what he wanted to see, a column of flittering bats circling a structure on the other side of town. The bats were honked off because of the sound the spell was making, and their attempts to get at the source of it and silence it was a beacon of angry fur and membrane in the night sky to thestral eyes.

He came out onto the balcony and took off, and he flew nearly five hundred feet up before crossing the city, to make absolutely sure that he was all but invisible in the night sky. He was a bit honestly surprised to see that the bats were surrounding not some modest rowhouse or brownstone in Old Town, where most working ponies lived in Canterlot, but a very large, very swanky manor not far from Summer Dawn's house. The oldest, richest, and most powerful unicorns in Canterlot lived in the nine mansions nestled up against the mountainside on that side of town. And bowler hat pony was in one of those mansions.

Or at least his hat was.

He swooped down and landed on the side of the wall of the manor over a window facing the mountainside, because now he could hear the spell and he quickly located the closest window to the sound. It was a bit of a buzz in his ears from that close, almost irritating, but he could still hear other sounds. The window below him was open to let in the crisp autumn air, and much to his delight, there were voices coming from the open window.

"I'll stay on the case, North Star, but I honestly don't see why. It's my professional opinion that you're wasting your gems." That voice was deep, a little raspy, the voice of a mature stallion. "The stallion never deviates from his routine. I'm not going to learn anything new. I'm not entirely sure what you want me to find."

"You find anything unusual or abnormal you can, Tracker, that I can take to the board of governors and get him removed from school," came another voice, the diction perfect and the voice practiced to be smooth and strong. The inflection told him that this was a highly educated pony...the owner of the mansion. And his name was North Star.

That was a name he knew. That was Nova's father.

"The fact that he lives by such a rigid schedule is abnormal," the investigator answered. "I've never seen a pony that young live like that. All he ever seems to do is read and study."

"And that itself is a clue," North Star replied. "And since you're an investigator, Tracker, I expect you to find out why."

"Alright. I'll keep digging and see what I can find," the investigator said. "But I'm going to warn you now, North Star. It's my professional opinion that I'm not going to find anything damaging enough to get him expelled."

Starjumper frowned, shifting a little to get his ear closer to the window without making himself visible, just in case one of them decided to walk over and look outside. So, Nova's father was trying to get him thrown out of school? No doubt Nova's father blamed Starjumper for his son being on probation, in danger of being expelled from school, and this was his answer. Not to keep his son on the straight and narrow, but to retaliate against the stallion that put his son into that situation.

Several bats flew by the window--the echo off the mountainside was preventing them from homing in on the source of the sound and flying in through the open window--and that caused one of them to walk over to it. "That's more bats than I've seen since the time I went to the Sighing Caves," the investigator said, his voice right under Starjumper...and that was a mistake. That close to the window, the bats would get a direct line on the source of the sound aggravating them...the hat.

And now that they could locate the sound, the bats attacked.

He tried very hard not to laugh when a large swarm of bats dove and entered the window, and there was a whole lot of screaming inside the room. He heard a whole lot of commotion, several breaking dishes, then the sound of a large piece of furniture overturning, and then a brief moment later, the bats boiled back out of the window. They must have torn the hat to shreds, and that disrupted the spell that was enraging them.

"What in Celestia's golden crown was that all about?" he heard North Star shout. "Why did they go after your hat?"

"I have no idea," the investigator answered, his voice clearly perplexed. "I have never seen that before. I've had that hat for years, and no bat has ever so much as landed on it."

"Well, is that something unusual and abnormal for you?" North Star demanded. "That half-bat pony mongrel comes to Canterlot, and now bats are attacking ponies! He must have something to do with it!"

The amused smile fell of Starjumper's face in a big hurry.

"With all due respect, you're being a touch absurd, North Star," the investigator unicorn said mildly. "You're under the false impression that he knows I'm following him. He has no idea who I am, so even if he could do something like make bats attack ponies, he'd have no reason to send them after me."

If he only knew.

"Just get your job done, Tracker. I want that barbaric mongrel out of my son's school by Hearth's Warming."

"I'll do my job, North Star. But like I said, you should be prepared for the possibility that I don't turn up anything."

"Oh, you will. I guarantee you will," came the answer, the voice almost seething.

He heard a pony leave the room, but Starjumper stayed where he was. He needed to get a look at this North Star so he could identify him, and he was waiting for the sound of hoofsteps coming from the room to stop. That would indicate that North Star was no longer moving, and that would let Starjumper move to a position on the mountainside facing the window to look inside without being seen himself.

But, that little conversation told him a whole lot. That investigator pony was trying to find a reason to get him thrown out of school, and doing it at the behest of the father of the pony he'd threatened. This North Star was getting his revenge on Starjumper for what happened to his son by trying to get him thrown out of school, and by association thrown out of Canterlot, given he couldn't afford to live in the city, not even on the money that Summer Dawn was paying him.

His spat with Nova was turning out to be far more serious than Starjumper expected.

And thinking of that little punk was almost prophetic, because he heard a door open, and then heard that very stallion's voice. "I'm finished, Sir," he heard Nova say.

"Bring it to me, and clean up this mess while I check your work. And I warn you now, foal, if there's even a single letter badly penned, it'll be a thousand lines tomorrow," he said in a voice of cold, almost sadistic command.

Well, that explained why Nova acted out at school. His father was a complete jerk, harsh and uncaring, maybe even abusive, so he acted out himself to make himself feel better. Starjumper had seen that before back in Baltimare with a couple of stallions from school.

"Yes, Sir," he heard Nova say in a submissive voice.

This was his chance. He turned and let go of the wall, his wings unfurling. A single powerful stroke of his wings carried him over the void between the mansion and the cliff that formed the mountainside, and he gripped the stone under his hooves when he landed and turned to look through the window. He saw Nova using his magic to clean up some broken dishes and an overturned table, restoring the broken dishes using a spell that mended damaged items. A fairly advanced spell, it showed that Nova had some potential as a magician. He was standing beside a very large, very expensive looking chair, and in it was North Star. The stallion was mature, well into middle age, with a snowy white coat and steel gray mane that was worn swept straight back and a thin, well groomed moustache and goatee. He was very thin, nearly emaciated, and that combined with the look on his face, like the world wasn't good enough to be under his hooves, made him look quite severe. He was wearing a dark green dinner jacket and a white ascot, with spats on his hooves. His horn was very long, an indication of his age, and was limned over in a dark gray nimbus of magic.

Just looking at him made Starjumper develop an instant dislike for him, despite what he'd already heard. This was the very epitome of a stuck-up Canterlot society snob, a pony that was convinced he was the highest form of life in the universe, and all other life existed for the sole purpose of giving him something to scorn.

This...this was an enemy. And Starjumper Astra was not kind to his enemies.

But, he did feel much of his animosity towards Nova slip away. Given he had to live in that house, no wonder he was so angry all the time. He lashed out because his father treated him like garbage. Starjumper actually felt sorry for the stallion.

He made sure they weren't looking towards the window, then he let go of the rock wall and vaulted back into the air, plans already forming. The first step to dealing with North Star was getting that investigator off his back, else he might see something Starjumper absolutely did not want anypony to see and ruin his life...maybe even get him killed.

There was the potential here that it might require him to get the Princess involved. He was fairly sure that she'd take a very dim view of North Star trying to get him expelled, not after all that hard work she put in to get him here and keep him here. But, the danger of that was the fact that the Princess was getting involved. if she put a hoof in, then North Star would be convinced that something very sinister was going on, and given how suspicious he was already, it might just fortify him to uncover the truth. He might think that Starjumper had cast a spell on her or something, and would convince himself that he was acting in the best interest of all of Equestria to go after Starjumper. And that kind of zealot was the worst kind, because they had the unswerving belief that they were right, no matter how many times they were proven wrong. Each time a zealot like that was proven wrong, it just made them more convinced that everpony else was wrong, more absolutely certain that they were all out to get him because he could see the truth they were deliberately denying. And ponies like that were dangerous.

No, it was best if he handled this himself, and use a light touch. There was too much danger that the whole thing could explode if the Princess got mixed up in it, given they were dealing with a society pony that could cause Princess Twilight no end of trouble if he got his hackles up. He'd get the Princess involved only if he couldn't deal with this himself. She would be his contingency plan.

So, the first step to this was dealing with the investigator, Tracker. And he had a good idea how to go about it.

Show him exactly what he expected to see.

The pony didn't think he was going to find anything. He thought he was on a wild goose chase, and that his employer was throwing his money away. If he was shown a week or two of the same old boring routine, that Starjumper's devotion to his studies dominated his life and he never deviated from his schedule, he would completely lose his motivation. He would simply go through the motions of investigating and report back to North Star that there was simply nothing there.

And this Tracker pony had better be glad that Starjumper needed to use a light touch. Given that his very life was at stake here if his secret got out, the way he should be handling this was to make Tracker disappear.

Literally.

But, this was going to take a little more digging on his part. Sending an investigator after him may not be North Star's only little scheme, and he needed to look into this pony to get a better idea of who he was, where he stood in Canterlot, and what else he may be doing to get revenge on Starjumper for humiliating his foal.

That had little to do with it, he supposed. Him humiliating Nova mattered almost nothing to a pony like North Star. What enraged him was humiliating the family name, that Nova's shame became his own by virtue of the fact that Nova was his son. That was why he was being so harsh to Nova, because Nova's shame had damaged North Star's own standing.

Given what he'd seen of North Star, he was confident that was the correct assumption.

Now that he knew about him, Starjumper kept one unicorn private investigator named Tracker very, very bored.

Starjumper's plan to deal with him was simple, but it was also working. Simply put, Tracker had virtually nothing to do over the next week except confirm that Starjumper was such a creature of habit that he was very nearly filled with clockworks. But it did more or less restrict him to the apartment at night, since he was concerned that Tracker may be casing the apartment after dark to see if he slipped out, then see him take off from the balcony. And not being able to go out and fly at night had made him a touch short-tempered. Going out to fly at night was the only real recreation he had, the only freedom he had, the only time he could relax and feel like he wasn't living in a prison, living his highly regimented life to present an image to the outside world that protected his secret. And having that taken away from him had affected him more than he expected it would.

Summer Dawn had been on the short end of that, and he really needed to make it up to her.

It had changed the plans for last Saturday a little bit. Instead of the Princess coming to the apartment for that long talk, he instead talked her into bringing him into the palace, and doing it covertly by teleporting him over. And that had taken a little bit of work to set up, since Summer Dawn was in the apartment that afternoon while he was trying to arrange things.

The week had been frustrating in more than one way. Summer Dawn was...well, she was starting to get under his skin. His mother's suggestion just kept ringing in his memory every time he was around her, and more and more, he was giving it some serious thought. It was getting harder and harder to keep things professional with her, because more and more, he felt like she was the only outlet he had here. She was a pony that had demonstrated he could invest in at least a little trust, and that made her the closest thing to a friend he had here.

Not enough trust to admit to the secret that she knew about him. Though she knew he could teleport, he still hadn't admitted it. So, he supposed, he didn't trust her as much as he thought he did.

His mother was right about one thing, though he'd never admit it to her. He was lonely. He was separated from his family, who were the only true friends he had. He had no friends here, no pony he could talk to about things that mattered to him. All he had was Summer Dawn, and while she certainly kept trying to get him to open up, was trying to get past the walls he erected around himself, the fear that she might discover what he was kept him at a distance.

And yet....

He regarded her, laying on the ceiling high over the main floor of the apartment and looking down to watch as she repeatedly created a small circular shield in front of her, maintained it for a moment, then dismissed it. She had learned the planar shield matrix and was mastering it before he moved her on to the next step, the next easiest shield to cast, which was the arc shield. She truly was a very impressive young unicorn. She had managed to cast the spell after just five days of practice, and she was quickly gaining mastery over it. That was far faster than he'd learned it.

Five days. Dear Celestia, was she ever incredible. He again felt both intimidated and humbled by her, a power that would rival an alicorn, a power that was hidden from the world by her inability to read, which had severely stunted her magical education. At this rate, she was going to master all five forms of the shield spell, and all three versions, in just another few weeks. Maybe even just two weeks, since learning the planar and arc forms of the shield would make learning angular, spherical, and irregular shields much easier. They were just more advanced versions of those two basic spells.

She'd already learned how to cast the three different versions of it, solid, directional, and magical. Those actually weren't that hard, it was just a minor variation in the spell matrix when it was formed.

"Square," he called, and she glanced up at him and dismissed her circular shield. The next one she formed was a square. "Triangle," he called, and she quickly answered his challenge. "The silhouette of a pony."

She gave him a surprised look, then bit her tongue a little bit, the tip sticking out, and her horn flared with bright pink energy. And to his pleasant surprise, she pulled it off. She was panting a bit from the effort after the shield formed, but she'd done it.

If she could pull that off, then she was ready.

"That...was...hard," she panted after she dismissed the shield.

"Yes it is," he agreed. "And now you know not to get too creative if you're ever using this spell for real. Keep it simple. You're not trying to impress whatever's attacking you with how pretty your shield is, you're trying to repel it. Function over style when the chips are on the table, Summer Dawn. Function over style."

"Okay," she said, getting her breath back. "Give me a minute. I feel wiped out."

"I'm not surprised. And well done, by the way."

She beamed a smile up at him. "Did you hear the news, Star? There are some thestrals coming to Canterlot from the Nightlands for a state visit."

"Oh, I know about it," he replied evenly.

"Is that why your family's coming here? To visit with them?"

He looked down at her. "Not quite," he replied. "The Princess invited them to Canterlot to have a holiday, and it's just coincidence they're coming the same week the thestrals will be here. She likes my mother, they met when the Princess came to Baltimare to talk to me about coming here. My family can't close the store until the brick season is done, so they couldn't come immediately."

"You said brick season ends on the first day of winter."

"Yes. They can't make bricks in the cold, it makes the bricks brittle."

"But that's tomorrow," she said.

"Well, it takes a while to arrange to close the shop for a week, Summer," he told her mildly. "Everypony in the district has to know so they can either stock up or make arrangements to shop somewhere else. It's bad business to upset your customers."

"Ohhhh," she said with a nod. "I'm looking forward to meeting your family."

He gave her a glance. "I thought we were finishing up early today."

"Well, yeah, but going to the Winter's Eve Ball isn't anywhere near as fun as this," she admitted. "I'd rather stay here and practice, but Mom will kill me if I show up at the usual time. I won't have enough time to get ready."

"Well, you more or less have planar shields mastered," he declared casually. "And this is a good place to stop. You'll be starting on arc shields tomorrow."

"Are they harder?"

"They're not harder to cast, but the fact that they're curved means there's some math involved in how you form them," he warned. "Once I'm sure you have a grasp on spatial geometry when used in magic, I'll teach you the spell."

"How do we do that?"

"You'll be casting a light spell based on the shield matrix," he replied. "Creating curved sheets of light instead of balls. When you show me you can build a mathematically correct arc of light, then I'll teach you how to do with with a shield matrix."

"Why does that matter? It being mathematically correct?"

"Because if it's not, the shield is very weak and easily broken," he replied simply.

"Okay, I get it," she nodded. "Sooo, Hearth's Warming is in three weeks," she began casually.

"No," he answered, which made her laugh.

"Well, I tried, so Mom and Dad can't be mad at me," she grinned. "But I am getting you a gift. So no grousing."

He looked down at her with a penetrating stare, which made her laugh again.

After she left, he didn't really have anything to do, and he couldn't go outside, because that would disrupt his routine...and right now, keeping to that routine was the most important thing. Summer Dawn leaving early was a bit outside of the routine, but given that tonight was some important social party, her leaving early had a very valid explanation.

But that left him...alone.

He felt almost stupid. He knew that this was the way it had to be. He knew that his life would be one of solitude, because if ponies found out who and what he was, it could very well put his life in danger. They wouldn't understand. They would only believe the old folk tales about were-ponies, about Lykans, and what he was would forever blind them to who he was. He started pacing the apartment, which for him was a much more expansive practice than regular ponies, given he considered the walls and ceiling just as common a thoroughfare as ponies considered the floor, a very poor attempt to duplicate the head-clearing serenity he felt when he was flying. He did his best thinking when he was flying, when the stars illuminated the ground below in a blanket of soft, milky radiance and the moon showed him its true beauty. The clear night air on his face, the wind under his wings, the myriad smells drifting up from the ground below, carried on the night thermals, there was nothing that calmed his mind and organized his thoughts better.

And pacing was a pitiful imitation of it.

It was that cursed Tracker, that was the problem. If he wasn't out there, Starjumper could go outside, take a walk, do something, and he had to resist the urge to go hunt him down and remove him permanently, something that Starjumper could easily do...and something that the thestral in Starjumper would be capable of doing. He was no soft-hearted earth pony or squeamish unicorn. He was a thestral, and thestrals, like pegasi, weren't afraid to get violent.

He slowed to a stop at the very apex of the curved ceiling over the bedroom and blew out his breath, mastering his more murderous intentions. Taking Tracker out of the equation would just alert North Star, make him think something really sinister was going on, and it would just replace Tracker with a new investigator that Starjumper didn't know. Killing him and making him disappear was a short term solution that would lead to long term problems, and he was mad at himself for even considering it.

Not that he cared about killing a pony, but that he was being so short-sighted that he was ignoring the long-term problems the action would create. His parents had taught him better than that.

Starjumper Astra was no squeamish unicorn. He had been taught from an early age that who he was and what he was may require him to kill in order to protect himself, and he had learned that lesson well.

He didn't even understand why this was making him so pecky. He spent most of his time in the apartment anyway, usually perfectly content to sit at the writing desk and study or do the work required of both school and the Princess. Why didn't he want to do it now?

Because he would be doing it alone.

Luna's grace, this was ridiculous! This was what he'd prepared for throughout his youth! Being alone! And now, just over a moon after leaving home, he was already feeling isolated?

It was nuts. Just nuts.

He walked down to the floor and forced himself to sit at the writing table, then took a deep, cleansing breath and mastered his jumbled thoughts. He had work to do. He had a report due to the Princess by Monday, and he had a report to do for Professor Frostmane on a subject Summer Dawn's class studied last year, The interaction between magic and physics, about how when magical laws superseded physical laws, and when physical laws superseded magical laws. Knowing which laws applied to a spell's effect was a critical part of an accomplished magician's skillset. It was going to be an easy report for him to write, because his father had taught him all about that a good three years before they taught it in school.

He took another deep, cleansing breath, mastering his unease. He had work to do. There was always solace in work. It occupied the mind and was a productive use of his time. He just had to have patience. He would wait Tracker out. He would regain his freedom after the thestrals came and went.

Patience.

Things should not be this complicated.

With a bit of an annoyed sigh, Starjumper "lowered" his head down between his hooves, a move that was actually moving it up given he was laying on the ceiling over the main room of the apartment. Below him, Summer Dawn was trying to cast an arc shield, having just learned the spell matrix and now trying to apply what she'd learned. He wasn't paying much attention to her when he should be, for it was usually his guidance that helped her correct the mistakes in her staging and learn how to cast the spells more quickly.

Simply put...he didn't know what to do about Summer Dawn.

He couldn’t deny it anymore. He liked her. Not romantically, but he liked her. He liked talking to her, he liked being with her. She was smart. She was funny. She was earnest. She was considerate and kind, and she was curious and enthusiastic. She was, quite simply, a delight to be around, and now he understood why she seemed to have so many friends in a town where most often, most friends were only friends for what they could get out of the relationship. She felt like a friend to him, too, a real friend, the first real friend he’d ever had outside of his family. She had accepted all the conditions he placed on her with grace and compassion, and she had never strayed from those boundaries in the entire moon that he’d been teaching her magic. When he made her leave the apartment, she never asked why and she never complained. Well, not complained complained, she did have her own little ways to make her displeasure known. When they talked, she never pressed him for more than he was willing to tell her, and more and more over the last couple of weeks, she'd been getting him to talk, getting past his stony silence and getting him to open up a little bit. And while she did often ask him to go to this restaurant or that shop with her, or asked him to any number of social events in Canterlot trying to coax him out of his apartment and go out and have a little fun, she never got mad when he constantly turned her down…and she also didn’t stop trying.

And that was the problem.

If she wasn’t so darn adorable, he could easily continue to keep her at foreleg’s length and keep things strictly business. But it was beyond that now, and a part of him felt, felt wrong for being evasive, even deceitful with her over things.

He liked her. He wanted to call her a friend. But for a pony like him, the term friend had some massive implications that went far beyond what it did for just about anypony else. For him, a friend was a pony he could literally trust with his life. A pony that would stand by him despite what he was, would see beyond it, the way his family did. A friend in his life would have power over him, terrible power, literally the power of life and death. And he wasn't about to give that kind of power to any pony he could not trust with it.

The question remained. Could he trust Summer Dawn? If he told her his secret, would she keep that secret? That was the question.

She had both pros and cons when it came to that dilemma. She already kept some of his secrets, so she may be able to keep a few more. She didn’t talk much about him to her friends, and had kept the secret of the real objective of her tutoring with him. She knew that he could teleport, and while he'd never confirmed it, she kept it secret as well. She'd proved that she was worth his trust when it came to those secrets.

And those were the cons against her. She was a society pony, and if there was one thing he’d learned about the society ponies in Baltimare, it was that the bigger the secret, the faster they made sure as many ponies as possible knew it. She seemed quite content to keep his small secrets, but how was she going to react when she found out the truth? Would she keep that secret, a secret so big that it would change everything she thought about him, that it would alter the foundation of their relationship? Or would the temptation simply be too much for her? Or what he felt was worse, would she decide that it was completely harmless to maybe just tell her best friend, because it was her best friend? And then things would snowball from there until everypony knew about him?

And then there was the very real possibility that she might recoil when she found out what he was, that she would run from him and be afraid of him. And that would hurt him more than anything else she could possibly do, even over exposing his secret to the entire city of Canterlot.

It was childish fear against an even more childish desire to have a friend.

He’d thought about it all day, to the point of distraction, and still hadn’t made a decision. And he knew that when it came to this, he’d darn well better make the right one. If he made the wrong choice, it not only could, it would ruin his life. He’d have to flee to the most remote corner of Equestria and spend the rest of his life all but hiding from the rest of the world. Or, if she reacted with horror at his secret, he would withdraw from everypony and never try to reach out to another in friendship again. After all, if somepony who knew him as well as she did was afraid of him, there was no hope that any pony in Equestria would accept him for what he was.

So, to say that this was an important decision was a massive understatement.

There were other considerations here, as well. Summer Dawn seemed quite content to try to worm her way into his life in other ways, like wanting to meet his family, and that was where things were going to get convoluted. The coming visit from the thestrals was going to make things very murky, and she was the one pony that was going to be in a position to see a whole lot more about what was going on than just about any pony not in the palace. She was going to find out that the thestrals hated him, absolutely hated him, and there was nothing in the world they wanted more than to see him dead. That was going to make her ask questions, start investigating, and that could be a problem. He'd learned that when that mare got a bee in her bonnet about something, she devoted the entirety of that amazingly perceptive mind to finding out the truth. It was going to be very, very hard to keep the truth from her, not without all but breaking off all contact with her for the next moon and then picking up her lessons again after the new year, which he did not want to do.

The idea of not having Summer Dawn come to tutoring, of him being alone every afternoon, it unsettled him far more than he wanted to admit to himself.

He was looking at the simple fact that it might make things easier to just tell her the truth, if he could find it in himself to place that kind of dire trust in her.

And again...it came down to trust.

For the entire tutoring session, he stayed up there and watched her with hooded eyes, asking himself that simple question over and over, but finding no answer. Could he trust Summer Dawn? Could he give her the darkest secret he possessed and trust that it wouldn't get him killed? Or would he discover too late that Summer Dawn was far more like North Star than she seemed, that he had made a terrible mistake in misjudging her?

As the clock blared out its three gongs, he looked down at her as she looked over at it, with a bit of irritation, then sighed and dutifully started collecting up her things. And he asked himself that question one more time.

Could he trust Summer Dawn? Could he trust that mare with his very life? Was it worth that risk just to have a friend?

She looked up at him as he considered that most dreadful question. "Star," she called. "The clock."

The clock. That damned clock. It had ruled his life since the day his father made it, a constant reminder that he would never have a normal life, that he would never be a part of the society that protected him from those that would end his life over their own irrational fear. He hated that clock. He hated it with every fiber of his being. But he also depended on it like no pony in Equestria depended on any object. That clock gave him what little life he did have, even as it constantly reminded him that it would never be enough. It would never be what he wanted.

It would never be whole.

He didn't even realize what he was doing until it was too late. His horn flared in a bright surge of golden energy, and he disappeared from the ceiling in a circular burst of his magic. He reappeared directly in front of her, with his flank to her. She recoiled a bit with wide eyes at his sudden reappearance, then gave a sudden bright laugh. "I knew it! I knew it!" she said in delight, but her elated expression faded as she looked at his stoic, almost stony expression. "Star?"

"I want you to take a short walk," he told her in a low voice, devoid of emotion, and he picked up the clock with his magic and floated it over and put it in her bag. "While you walk, I want you to ask yourself this question, Summer Dawn," he said, turning and walking away from her. "Can I keep a secret? Can I keep a secret that could get a pony killed if it gets out? Can I live with that kind of a responsibility on my shoulders, knowing what could happen if I fail?"

She gave him a surprised look.

"The clock will ring two more times, Summer Dawn. It will give five bells in fifteen minutes, and then it will give seven bells ten minutes after that. If you ask yourself that question and then believe that you can keep that kind of a secret, that you can accept that responsibility, then you will return to the apartment before the clock rings seven bells. But if you can't, if you don't think you can, or you don't want that kind of responsibility placed on your shoulders, then you set the clock on the porch outside my door and go home, and we will never speak of this again. We'll meet tomorrow in the library as if this conversation never happened. Do you understand?" he asked, turning his head and looking back at her.

"I...I understand," she said seriously. "But I don't have to leave this apartment, Star. If this secret involves you, then you already know my answer."

"I may know your answer. But you don't know your answer," he answered evenly. "This is serous, Summer. This is the most serious question you will ever be asked. So I want you to give it serious thought."

She gave him a long look, then nodded and walked past him, towards the door. "Then I'll go for a walk. And unless something changes, I'll be back in about twenty minutes."

He watched her walk out the door, and he closed it behind her. He then turned away from the door, sat down, and bowed his head, wondering what in the blue blazes of Tarterus he had just done.

Almost with predictable precision, his door opened just as the clock gave its final warning, ringing seven bells, and Summer Dawn returned to the apartment. He turned his head and looked at her, and saw that her expression was very serious, but also very determined. She lifted the clock out of her saddlebag with her magic and returned it to its place on the shelf, then she took off her saddlebag, set it on the peg by the door, and then stepped over to her cushion and sat down without saying a word.

He gave a sigh. "Then so be it," he intoned, standing up. His horn glowed with soft golden energy, and he locked the front door, then closed the curtains over the balcony window. He walked past her, towards the stairs leading up to the bedroom, and didn't say anything for a long moment. He was wasting a little time, unsure of how he could explain it. But he was certain she'd understand it when she saw it. "Understand, Summer, that I'm the only one of my kind," he began. "My brother and sisters aren't like me. They were born normal."

"Normal? What do you mean?"

"You're about to find out," he said as he turned towards her, positioning himself so he was framed by the large west windows, putting the setting sun behind him. "Don't scream," he warned as the last slivers of the setting sun disappeared behind the horizon.

She gave him a perplexed look, but it was too late for her ask why he'd say something that ridiculous.

Seconds later, he knew the moon was being raised, because he felt it, felt the moonlight go straight through him and into his soul. Summer Dawn gave a loud gasp and stood up, then backed up a couple of paces in surprise when Starjumper’s horn flared with energy and then disintegrated, turning to fine ash and drifting down to the floor. She very nearly did scream when the wings grew out from his back with magical speed, the flesh and bone growing out in a matter of seconds as blood oozed down his sides, to the sound of cracking bone and the sight of muscle and flesh growing over the exposed bone and sinew, and then skin and dark blue fur shrouded that gruesome sight and the membranes filled out from the tops of the arches of his wing spars, visible to her because he had to keep them spread out wide to give them room to do so. He raised his head and looked at her as his ears changed shape slightly, grew a little, and the tufts grew on the tips, completing his transformation into a thestral.

It was over in seconds. He blew out his breath as the last of the pain subsided, then calmly folded back his wings and looked at her. “This is why you leave when that clock rings, Summer Dawn,” he told the stunned mare. “This is why I do what I do that makes no sense to you. In the sunlight, I’m a unicorn. In the moonlight, I am a thestral.”

She gave him a long look, then she blinked. “That…is…amazing!” she said in a sudden eruption, almost rushing up to him. “Oh my gosh, that is so cool! Can you fly? Why are your wings so much bigger than a pegasus’ wings? Whoa, your cutie mark is even different! It’s like you’re an entirely different pony! Can you still do unicorn magic like this? Can you do more thestral stuff than just walking on walls as a unicorn?”

He was honestly shocked at how, how accepting she was. She was curious instead of afraid. She wasn’t afraid! And Luna, was that ever a huge relief! He had to give a wry laugh and look down at her. “And here I thought you’d be afraid of me.”

“I’ve known you for over a moon, Star!” she told him. “Even if you look different, it’s still you! And why would I ever be afraid of you?”

That made him feel almost immediately better, like he’d made the right choice.

“But seriously, though, why are you so afraid of this? Why do you hide it, Star?”

“I have a very good reason,” he told her. “And to understand that reason, you have to understand exactly who and what I am, and what it means.” She immediately returned to her cushion and sat down, her expression eager and expectant, and that made him laugh. “Then so be it,” he said, sitting down in front of her, which required him to open his wings else the tips of them would press up against the floor. “I may be the only one of my kind, but I’m not the first. The thestrals have a name for me, for my condition. According to them, I’m Cursed, and their name for me translates to Cursed One in Ponish. Ponies call us Lykans, the sound of the word when spoken in Thestralla, the native language of the thestrals. Ponies like me come about when a thestral has foals with a non-thestral. The vast majority of them are normal, like my brother and sisters, but then there are the Cursed,” he said with dark amusement. “And they hate me, Summer Dawn. If I were to ever go to the Nightlands, I would be killed on sight. The only reason I’m still alive is because we live in Equestria, and I am under Princess Celestia’s protection. When I was born, the thestrals found out about me, and came for me,” he told her. “They came to kill me, Summer Dawn, but Princess Celestia intervened personally. She forced a treaty with the Night King that made him promise to leave me alone, in exchange for the solemn promise that I would never leave Equestria, that I would never cross the eastern sea and even be on the same continent as the Nightlands. And if I ever break that promise, if I ever so much as set one hoof outside the borders of Equestria, it might start a war between the thestrals and Equestria.

“Why they hate me so much is based on an old legend,” he continued. “Legend says that all thestral magic comes from an ancient relic known as the Night Stone. The legend says that they were originally earth ponies, but when they found the Night Stone, it changed them into thestrals, it gave them wings, gave them the magic that makes them what they are. And where I come into this legend, Summer Dawn, is that the legend also says that if a Cursed One ever touches the Night Stone, it will shatter, and the thestrals will lose their wings and their magic and become earth ponies once again.”

She gave him a surprised look.

“Whether this old legend is true or not is a moot point, because they believe it,” he told her. “They see me as a threat to the thestral race, Summer Dawn. Is it a surprise that they would be willing to go to the lengths of killing a newborn foal to protect everything they are, everything they know?”

“I…when you say it like that, I guess not. But it’s still wrong.”

“Of course it is, from our point of view. From their point of view, they’re preventing a catastrophe, and the life of one foal doesn’t outweigh the survival of an entire race. Most of their laws revolve around preventing Lykans from ever being born. Thestrals are not allowed to marry non-thestrals. Thestrals aren’t allowed to move out of the Nightlands, and if they do, if they break that law, they are banished, never allowed to return. The thestrals here that serve Princess Starlight are only here based on an ancient agreement between Princess Luna and the thestrals, and the thestral guards here shut themselves away from the other ponies of Equestria to protect themselves from the potential that they fall in love with an Equestrian pony. Visitors that come to the Nightlands have to go through a lot of red tape to gain permission, and while they’re there, they’re watched. And if they even show a hint of being friendly with the thestrals, they’re kicked out of the kingdom. They wouldn’t even let any ponies in if not for the fact that the Nightlands has to trade for what they need to survive, so they depend on those foreign merchants for basic necessities. They can’t grow a lot of food there, Summer Dawn, because it’s a kingdom of high mountains with little soil, and where there is soil, they can’t grow enough food to feed the entire population. So, the thestrals have to trade for food, and that means they have to let outsiders in. They mostly trade with the griffons and the hippogryphs, who live in the southern range of the Misty Mountains where the Nightlands is. Griffons and hippogryphs aren’t ponies, and that means there’s no chance a Lykan can be born. But the griffons and hippogryphs can’t trade them everything they need, so they have to let ponies in.

“And that’s how I came to be. My father was trading with the thestrals, trading them food for their tapestries. My mother met him on his journey, fell in love with him, and left the Nightlands to be with him. And here I am.”

She looked absolutely rapt, her mouth slightly open and her eyes locked on him.

“The ponies of Equestria may not know of that old legend and believe it, but they have their own legends about ponies like me that make sure I keep myself a secret,” he said blandly.

“Lykans…were-ponies!” she blurted.

He gave her a nod. “And I’ll tell you now that those stories are just wild, made up fairy tales,” he told her. “I can’t change ponies into were-ponies by biting them. I don’t drink blood, I don’t go berserk during a full moon, and I don’t burst into flames in the light of the sun. The very fact that I’m still alive proves that last point,” he said dryly. “I’m the same pony now I was ten minutes ago, I just look different. The reason I keep this secret is to prevent a mob of superstitious ponies from trying to drive me out of town because they have no idea who I really am. All they know, and all they care to know, is that their legends say I am a monster. They won't care if that legend is wrong, just as much as the thestrals don't care whether or not if I can shatter the Night Stone. They know what they want to know, and they don't care to know more.” He gave her a penetrating stare. "So now you know the truth, Summer Dawn. And undestand that my life is now in your hooves. If you tell anypony about this, it could get me killed. And if the thestrals know that you know the truth, it could get you killed. So, for both our sakes, you must be silent. There's an old saying, Summer, the secret unspoken remains a secret. Now it's time to prove to both me and yourself that you can keep a secret."

"I've kept your secret up to now, I can go on keeping it," she said with calm dignity, being very serious.

"Knowing I can teleport is nowhere near this."

"When your mother came to see you and I met her, I heard her voice through the door as I was leaving. I heard her say that the Night King lost his throne, and because of that, you were in danger," she told him. "I didn't say anything because I didn't want you to think I overheard it on purpose. And now that you've told me the truth, now I understand what she meant. But I knew then, Star, that you had a really big secret. And I kept it, because you are my friend."

"You have no idea how relieved I am to hear that," he said simply. "And there's something else you need to know."

"What is that?"

"I'm being watched," he replied. "I actually took a very big risk bringing you here, because Nova's father hired a private investigator to find a reason to get me expelled from school, and he's been watching the apartment for the last two weeks. You being here after dark is a disruption of my usual routine, and no doubt he's very curious about why you're in here now."

"He did what?" she gasped.

"It seems that Nova's father was far madder about what happened than Nova," he said dryly. "I realized i was being followed last week, then I tailed my tail after I could follow him without being seen." He opened his wings and fluttered them ostentatiously. "I tailed him to Nova's house and overheard him and North Star talking. North Star hired him to find something damaging about me that will make the school expel me. And I think this might be what North Star would be looking for," he added dryly, fully opening his wings. "Now that you know that, you might be able to help me get North Star to back off."

"Oh, I can help you with that," she said, almost seethingly.

"Quietly," he added in a strong voice. "This is going to require a light touch, Summer. We have to thwart North Star without reinforcing his belief that I'm the sinister presence he believes me to be. A pony like that is a zealot, Summer, a zealot that is convinced that he is right and anypony that tells him different is stupid, blind, or actively working against him, and zealots only dig in when ponies tell them that they're wrong. The best way to go about this is to simply give him nothing to see, until he gives up on his own." He glanced towards the front door. "That's what I've been doing with the pony watching me, and I've learned that he's almost ready to go to North Star and tell him that there's just nothing there for him to find. I'm sure us breaking our routine is going to pique his curiosity and make him dig for a few extra days, but we can simply wait him out.

"The bigger concern, at least to me, is the fact that the thestrals are coming," he grunted. "I'll be locked in this apartment days before they get here and won't be allowed out until at least a day after they leave, and you need to know, because it'll affect your lessons. I'm still going to tutor you while I'm locked in here, but I won't be allowed to go to school, or even leave the apartment. While they're here, I'll be in very real danger. Remember, Summer, they want to kill me, and here they'll be literally within sight of me."

"That's why your family's coming," she realized.

"To be in the Royal Palace and under the protection of the EUP and the Princesses while the thestrals are here," he nodded. "It's entirely possible that they'll attack my parents, since they blame them for me being alive in the first place. And their track record against my family shows that they'll be as petty as they can possibly be to punish my entire family for my mother's sins," he growled. "When my mother left the Nightlands and married my father, the Night King retaliated by stripping the family she left behind of all their money and property. He went after my mother's brother and sister, which is a coward's reaction," he spat. "My aunt and uncle had been well off, prominent members of thestral society, from an old and established family. And they lost it all because of my mother...because of me. The Night King took everything from them when they committed no crime, did nothing wrong, and he did it out of pure spite."

She gave him a startled look.

"Do you understand now what my family is facing? What I'm facing? They're not going to show anyone in my family the slightest bit of mercy, Summer. They want me dead, and what's worse, they want to hurt anypony that has even the most remote connection to me and to the fact that I even exist. And that is why you are at risk. If they find out that we're friends, they'll try to use you to get to me, and do not think for a second that they would hesitate to kill you if it somehow furthers their plans to get to me. That's why, when you walk out of this apartment tonight, you act like nothing has changed. I am your tutor, you are my student. You hired me to do a job for you, and that's all I am to you. I'm your employee. And I'm sure that a society unicorn like you will be very good at treating somepony like me with all the arrogance and condescension I expect out of Canterlot unicorns," he said dryly.

Her eyes flashed, but then she gave a sudden laugh. "I'm not very good at being stuck up," she warned with a small smile.

"It's the only reason I tolerate you," he said blandly, which made her grin.

“I can keep a secret, Star. But I do want to know one thing. Why tell me? Why show me?”

“I…I’m really not sure,” he replied honestly. “I guess it’s because I’m tired of being alone. My whole life I’ve had to keep this secret, and it’s made my life a very isolated one. When I was a foal, I could never do things other foals did, or play with them very much, because when I was a foal I had a problem keeping the secret. And now that I’m older, I can’t get close to other ponies, because they may figure things out, figure out I have a deep, dark secret, and that will either push them away or try to learn the truth of it. I can’t be friends with anypony with this hanging over me,” he said, opening his wings fully. “You’re the first pony that has ever just accepted my secrecy and didn’t either let it push you away or try to find out the truth, which would push me away. You’re the only real friend I’ve ever had outside of my family, Summer Dawn, and friends don’t lie to each other.”

She gave him a compassionate, reassuring look. “I like you too, Star,” she told him with a smile. “And I haven’t been this happy since before I started school. Thanks to you, I don’t dread going to school now. I don’t feel stupid and inadequate. And you’re teaching me real magic, more magic than I ever learned in school, and you've shown me what I want to do when I finish school, what I want to be. I want to be a magician like you. I want to learn everything there is to know about magic. You’ve completely turned my life around, you've given me purpose and direction, and now I’m not terrified I’m going to fail school and let my parents down. And that’s all thanks to you. So I’m darn sure gonna keep your secret, as thanks for everything you’ve done for me, even if I didn’t like you,” she said with a playful smile.

“And that makes me feel like I didn’t just make the worst mistake of my life,” he said honestly, standing up. “I need to clean the blood off my sides."

"That happens every time?"

He nodded as he turned around.

"Does it hurt?"

"A little, but I'm used to it," he replied easily as he moved towards the kitchen area. He tended to his sides, and Summer Dawn helped out by cleaning up the ash on the floor, placing it in the ash bin when he pointed to it. He then came back to her and sat down. "This is your only chance to ask those questions I can see in your eyes, Summer," he warned with a slight smile. "I may never be this talkative again. Don't waste it."

She laughed. “So, you can fly like that?”

“Of course I can,” he said, slowly flapping his wings. “They’re not just decorations.”

“Why are your wings so big?”

“You saw my mother, Summer. All thestrals in my family have oversized wings, including my sister Songbird. It’s a family trait,” he said mildly.

“Can you do unicorn magic like this?”

He shook his head. “No horn, no magic,” he answered.

“And you’ll change back in the morning, right? What happens to your wings? Do they ungrow like they grew in?”

“They turn to ash, like how my horn did,” he answered her. “That’s the worst part of it, truth be told. It doesn’t hurt very much when my horn burns off, but it does hurt when my wings do it.”

“They burn off?”

He nodded. “They don’t burst into flames or anything dramatic like that. They just turn to ash and crumble to dust, like my horn did. But it doesn’t happen so fast that I don’t feel it.”

She gave him a compassionate look. “And you’ve had that happen to you every day since you were born?”

“I’m used to it,” he shrugged.

She got up, and Starjumper stayed seated while she slowly walked around him, inspecting him. And he allowed it…after all, she was a naturally curious pony. “Why does your cutie mark change?”

“That I don’t know for sure, but I have a theory. My special talent as a unicorn is based on unicorn magic, and since I can’t do unicorn magic like this, I think my cutie mark changes to reflect that fact.”

“So what is your special talent, hmm?” she asked playfully.

“Guess,” he said simply.

She was quiet a moment. "Teleportation!" she blurted.

"Correct," he said with a nod. "That's why I'm here. My special talent is based on a spell that takes a lot of magical power to use, so it makes me look like I'm more powerful than I really am."

“Huh.” He felt her hoof slide along the membrane of his wing, and he opened it wider. “What would happen if you broke your wing? Would it grow back the next day whole, or still be broken?”

“That’s a pretty observant question,” he said approvingly. “The answer is, they grow back in the same state they were in when they burned away. So yes, it would grow back broken. Because of that, it takes my wings twice as long to heal as the rest of me, since they’re only here half the time. That’s why my father taught me how to make something that accelerates the natural healing process. It can’t mend a broken bone in minutes, but it lets me heal almost anything that happens to them in a few days instead of a few weeks, or even moons.”

“How can you use it if you can’t do magic when they’re out?”

“Because it’s not unicorn magic, it’s potion making, and anypony can learn that,” he answered.

“That’s pretty awesome. You could make it and sell it,” she told him.

“No. You have no idea how much time and effort it takes to make it,” he said dryly. “I keep one vial of it on hoof if it's needed, then make more if I use that vial. I only make it when I have to.”

“Oh. Well, it was an idea,” she said, tapping the hooked thumb claw at the juncture of the wingbones on top of his wing with her hoof. “What’s it like?”

“I can’t really explain it to you,” he answered. “When I’m like this, I’m literally an entirely different pony, but still the same me. I have wings, my senses are different, and I lose access to my unicorn magic. All I have is my thestral magic.”

“Thestral magic. What can it do?”

“You've already seen most of it, because I don't lose most of it it when I'm a unicorn. That makes me more thestral than unicorn,” he answered. “You’ve seen my spider magic, when I’m sitting on the ceiling and whatnot. That’s thestral magic, not a unicorn spell. Thestrals can walk on clouds like pegasus ponies as well, but they can’t affect the weather. That’s unique to pegasi. Griffons and hippogryphs are the same way. They can walk on clouds too, but they can’t change or affect the weather. But I can walk on clouds as a unicorn. Because of that, I have a theory that thestral spider magic and the basic magic of most winged sentient life to walk on clouds might be somehow related. The thestral magic I gain, that I don't have all the time, is the magic that allows me to fly. Thestrals are like pegasi that way, our wings are actually too small to get us off the ground if we didn't have flying magic. Well, most other thestrals. I think my wings might be big enough to let me get off the ground without having flying magic, but I wouldn't be very graceful in the air. I'd be gliding more than anything else. Someday I'm going to test that theory and see if I'm right or not. And that's it. That's thestral magic.”

“Huh,” she sounded, coming around to his head again, and she couldn’t resist touching his tufted ear with her hoof. “You said you have different senses.”

He nodded. “I have much sharper senses as a thestral, Summer. I can see in the dark, hear much better than I can as a unicorn, hear sounds that I can’t usually hear as a unicorn like the way dogs can hear a dog whistle but we can’t, and I can smell everything around me, including being able to identify things by scent, like a hound. I can also see colors that I can’t as a unicorn.”

“What kind of colors?”

“I can’t explain it. Since you can’t see them, there’s no way I can describe it in a way that would make sense to you. It would be like you trying to describe the color purple to a pony who’s been blind since birth. There’s just no way to do it.”

“That’s really cool,” she said, leaning in and looking inside his ear. “And I’m surprised you’re being so honest.”

“I don’t want you to be afraid of me, Summer. So I’m telling you what you want to know so you won’t be afraid of what you don’t know.”

“I’m not afraid of you, goof,” she told him dismissively. “I don’t see why anypony would be afraid of you like this. I think this is awesome. I mean, you change into an entirely different pony at night! It’s like you have two completely different lives. I don’t understand why you keep it a secret.”

“Because of ponies that believe those old mare’s tales about Lykans,” he replied immediately. “I’d rather not be run out town by a bunch of ignorant ponies carrying torches and pitchforks, Summer. So I just keep what I am to myself. It doesn’t affect other ponies, I’m no threat or bother to them, and I just want to be left alone to live my own life without ponies either being afraid of me or never leaving me alone because they’re not.” He sighed. “Besides, I keep this secret because of the thestrals. They’re afraid of my curse, and anypony they think is close to me becomes a target. So to protect other ponies from them, I keep to myself.”

“This is not a curse. This is way too cool to be a curse,” she scoffed.

“That’s not how they see things,” he said dryly. “So, now you know, Summer Dawn. And now you have a secret to keep,” he told her calmly, but his voice almost vibrated with emotion.

"You can depend on me, Star," she told him reassuringly, reaching over and putting her hoof under his chin the way her mother had done to her. "You've done so much for me, I'd keep it just out of respect for that. But I'm going to keep your secrets because you are my friend, and friends are always there for each other."

He looked up at her, trying his best to not let any emotion show in his expression. "Thank you, Summer," he said simply. "You've been the only ray of sunshine since I came to Canterlot."

She beamed at him a bit. "So why did you come to Canterlot? Just to study magic?"

"More or less. The Princess wanted to study my condition, she does know about it, but she brought me here to see if I could learn other high order magic. She told me that even if teleportation is my special talent, it takes so much magic to use that I might be able to learn other highly advanced spells."

"That sounds logical to me. And given how good you are with magic, Star, I doubt there's any magic you can't do," she said with a smile.

"Flattery isn't getting you out of your practice," he told her dryly, which made her laugh. "And you do need to go, Summer. Every moment you stay here just makes that investigator more and more curious."

"You tell me all this, now you're throwing me out?"

"The art of keeping a secret is pretending it doesn't exist, Summer," he told her seriously. "So, yes, I'm throwing you out. Go home, and don't forget to practice your planar shield spells tonight. That will help you when you come back tomorrow to work on arc shields. Hopefully you can manage to cast it so you can practice your arc spells over the weekend."

She gave him a long look, then nodded soberly. "I understand. And tomorrow, we don't say another word. The secret unspoken remains a secret, even if you're speaking about it to somepony that already knows it."

"Exactly," he said with an approving nod. "I'm glad you do understand. So," he said, standing up and folding back his wings. "I'll see you in the library in the morning."

"I'll be there," she said with a smile, floating her saddlebags over and placing them on her back. "But there is one thing I have to say before I leave."

She dared lean over and kiss him playfully on the cheek, then she gave him a smile and turned for the door. He backed up quickly so he wouldn't be visible from any angle from the open doorway, and she unlocked opened it, went through, and closed it behind her.

He spent a very long moment staring at the closed door, considering just what he had done, and how impulsive it had been to do it. He just put his life at risk, put her life at risk, and he'd done it without really thinking about it, without completely thinking it through. There was no turning back from that decision now, it had been made and could not be unmade, and he could only hope that he had done the right thing.

But he did have hope. She hadn't been afraid of him. She hadn't screamed and ran out the door. She was more curious than anything else, and that made him feel relieved in ways he hadn't even considered. The fear that she would be afraid of him and run, never have anything more to do with him even if she didn't tell anypony about him, that had been his greatest fear. To be rejected like that, to bare his soul to another pony and have them be afraid of what he was showing them, that would have just destroyed him.

Destroyed him.

He felt hopeful. Summer Dawn had accepted his truth, and what was more, it didn't dissuade her. He...he did feel that he could trust her. He felt comfortable with his life being in her hooves. If anything, what he'd learned moments ago told him that she would keep his secrets, and also told him that she understood the great responsibility that she now carried on her back. She had the power of life and death over him, and had proved, at least so far, that she knew just how titanic that responsibility could be.

And the best part? He now had a friend here in Canterlot, who would understand why he lived such a secretive and regimented life, that he didn't have to exclude from seeing those parts of it he had to hide behind his walls. He had a friend here that could understand him, understand who he was and how it shaped his life. And that was going to make his time here feel much less burdensome.

He felt...content. He felt...optimistic. He felt like the walls of the apartment weren't closing in on him anymore, that he wasn't locked in a prison cell. He felt like he could get through the next couple of weeks without going crazy, and he felt like things were starting to look better in his future.

He felt like the clock, that hated, cursed clock, had lost one of its grips on running his life.

He felt hopeful.

Comments

[FireheartThePone]

Hoooleeee crap.

[Bloody_Tofu]

Very nice!!

Another great chapter. I realy live their interactions.

[Flod]

Where is the next button? ;~;