Chapter 20: so THAT'S why you don't look them in the eyes!
A note got smacked into my window, held there by a low hanging cloud. I sighed as I got up from my couch to go see what it said. "Really gotta figure out a better mail system..." I snagged the envelope from the fluffy delivery cloud and pushed it back up on its way. "Now then..."
To the Lady of Locomotive Lullabies,
"Eugh... I think I preferred 'Genta',"
Thou art cordially invited to Our Castle Moon Beam, to participate in a grand adventure!
We hath seen strange creatures in the night, unlike any other, so We wouldst set out on a quest to find their origin.
Sincerely,
Night Strider.
"Seriously, you even Write Old Timey? We are getting dangerously close to the last straw here missy, I think it's about time I teach you modern terminology," I vowed to my nonexistent audience, while sticking the paper in a furnace and cooking up some "pork" with it.
The cloud ride over was annoyingly slow, but that's what happens when you use a simple spell to turn a cloud against the wind that only ever blows in one direction. I should probably implement a slightly more dynamic weather system. soon enough the Castle turret was within Jumping distance, so I did just that, and let the cloud resume it's migration across the sky box.
I found Night Strider hammering away in the armory/forge room, shaping what looked like fore-grieves. "Good morrow Princess Nighty Lighty, we hath art arivethed to partake in thine most excellent questeth," I say with a smirk as I purposefully butcher the ye old accent.
I am rewarded with a frown and a half lidded stare. "Thou would do well to not disrespect our way of speaking."
"Whatever dost thou meaneth?" I say cheerfully, placing a forelg over her shoulders. "Art mine wordseth noteth quiteth righteth?" She trembled with silent fury, and swiveled her ears away to attempt to rid herself of my nonsensical babbling. "Thee hatheth to pointeth out mine errors if I ameth to-eth improveth, no?"
She turned to look at me, her eyes practically on fire with rage. I opened my mouth to apologize, but she stuck a wad of "leather" strips into my mouth. "If thou art to mock me, thou shalt receive a fitting punishment."
I rolled my eyes and spat out the make-shift gag. "Im not making fun of you... okay I was, but I wasn't doing it to be mean, just a bit of good natured ribbing between friends?" I explained, hoping to avoid whatever scheme she was cooking up.
I swear, sometimes, she just gets this look in her eyes, like she is older than she is letting on...
"Fine, but We shall still teach thee a lesson for this transgression." She huffed, looking like the rather adorable pegasus filly she was.
"That's fair I suppose, now then, what's this quest you wish to embark on?"
"Ah yes, at night we hath heard a whispering in the halls of our castle, and through the windows we has't gazed upon deep purple eyes yond vanish in a blinketh, we wouldst wish to know of these creatures, and their origins"
Sounds like endermen, hmm... pony pun... Endermare? Ender-pony? "Yeah I know what your talking about, they're called endermare, I can help you get to their domain, but we would have to stop off somewhere else first."
"Where wouldst that be?"
"You'll see, but first we need gear, armor, weapons, oh, and a fair amount of obsidian."
"More volcanic glass? Doth thee need another enchantment table?"
"No, we're making a portal," I said dismissively, turning around to head back to my aircapeligo, so I could grab my mining gear.
When we emerged from the mine, the sun had set. Our haul consisted of seven emeralds, a stack and a half of iron ore, some redstone, sixteen diamonds, an unknown amount of gold that Nighty was hoarding, and fourteen obsidian, we didn't a really need that much, but I prefer to have the corners filled in.
Nighty was pouting again, and refusing to look at me because I wouldn't explain any of the details around the End, or the obsidian portal we would soon build. After minutes of silence, I turned to face her fully, and she was still dead set on the path we were walking, I caught a glimpse of lighter colours on her flank that reminded me, I still hadn't checked what her mark was.
Night Strider's Cutie Mark consisted of a silvery crescent moon, wearing a sleeping cap, with some bluish cloud cover in the lower third, obscuring part of the moon.
the hell does this mean? Is she good at bed time stories or something?
I would have actually asked her but the second I opened my mouth to do so, something... vwoops, garnering our collective attention. Standing just ahead of us was a tall, lanky equine creature, slowly tromping about, cloaked in floating purple particles. It turned to face us, a grass block in its jagged jaws. I tried to avert my gaze, but Nighty stared at its deep purple eyes in wonder. I was then given three weeks of nightmare fuel as it's mouth drew back, and it's upper skull stretched upwards, a deafening angry scream eminating from its gaping, tooth filled jaws. It charged us, Nighty screamed.
Note to morning self, check bed sheets, this kinda stuff is what causes accidents.
Night Strider shot her crossbow at it before I could warn her, and just as the arrow was about to pierce its leathery hide, it vanished, leaving it's signature purple cloud to pull together and dissipate. I grabbed onto Nighty and dragged her into a one block tall crevice. Once again I was treated to a reminder that the dream worked differently than the game, as the nightmarish thing threw itself at our hidy-hole violently, screeching. It then dropped onto its side and started crawling in after us, carving into the loose soil with its elongated outstretched limbs, it's head shaking with unbridled fury.
"Holy shit!" I breathed, swinging my iron sword infront of me defensively. I barely nicked it's forelimb, eliciting a cry of anger as it dissapeared again. I grabbed onto the equally scared pegasus filly and switched from unicorn to a pair of wings. Feathers made of light burst from my new appendages as we dragged eachother into the sky. Fun fact, endermare's can teleport into the air, and are about twelve levels of horrifying. The lanky teleporter was now grappling onto us, taking away pretty much all flight control, we ended up crashing on the bank of a river, the long legged thing writhing in the sand to free itself.
In a moment of realization, I grabbed an empty bucket from my bags and filled it at the rainbow stream. The thing teleported again, and it's head shot up from the sands, getting a yelp from both of us, and a hefty kick in the face from the natural pegasus. I ran up to the thing and slammed the pale of water down on its bruised face.
It began screaming anew, this time in pain, it tried desperately to rip the bucket off, so I swapped out my wings and held it on with magic. The thing eventually stopped struggling, and simply disintegrated into purple flakes of energy, dropping three ender pearls.
After a few moments, the power of speech returned to me. "...N-nope, no, nuh-uh, hell no!" I said, still shaking. "Fuck to that, no!" I scooped up the orbs, opened up the options menu, and set the world time to day, and the game to peaceful.
"I'm not dealing with that, no way in hell." I grumbled, using command of the dream realm to place us safely in castle Moon Beam.
"Wh-wh-wh-what was that!?" Nighty stammered.
"Fuck no!" I screamed back. "We're done here, we will not be going to hell today, Thank you, enjoy a more peaceful dream!" I turned off the game and took us to the regular dream scape.
I flared my horn, reinforcing the happy nonsensical nature of the dream, and squashing any fragments of nightmares that had decided to ride on our recent encounter. I plopped down on the couch and just went limp, slowly letting my tension leave my body, after a minute of this not working, I summoned up a half dozen bunnies, and kept one in my forelimbs.
Night Strider followed my example and summoned her wool ball, Muffin. "What was that?" She asked once more in a much calmer tone.
"That was an endermare, and I was not expecting it to be that... intense." I chocked out, and added another dream bunny to my hug, another one curled up on my head at my subconscious request, aiding in calming me down. "Im not eager to get back into that right now, are you okay not going back to that game for a few days?"
She nodded rather vigorously, and hugged her puff ball a little tighter. Moments pass as we each indulge in our comfort giving balls of fluff, before Night Strider decides to break the silence. "So, thou know how those art supposed to behave, yes?"
"Yeah... their supposed to teleport around passively, until you look them in the eye, then they turn hostile. They will always teleport away before a projectile can hurt them, except for firework rockets. They have a violent allergic reaction to water, and will avoid it at all costs normally. They are three blocks tall, so hiding under a two block ledge is supposed to keep you safe, I guess that changed when the game became a dream." I shuddered, amassing more comfort bunnies.
Relative silence hung in the atmosphere for a few dream minutes, then Night Strider faded out of the dream, followed quickly by me.
I woke up before anyone else at Golden Oaks, before sunrise even. I wobbled into the bathroom and filled up the tub for a nice relaxing bath, and hopped in. I let myself be completely submerged within the calming waters, I'm not sure how long I lied under the still surface, but I have a feeling it probably wasn't very long. When I came up for air, I was no longer alone in the room, Twilight was at the mirror using her magic to brush her teeth.
Well that's a rather mundane use for physics-be-damned.
"Hey," I greeted her softly, she still jumped at the news that she didn't have the room all to herself though.
"Ah-rgent? Oh, what are you doing up so early?" She said, wiping down the now spit covered mirror.
"Eh, meh. I just woke up early." I parted my wet mop of hair. "What about you? What are you doing up before dawn?"
"Could you not sleep, was it a nightmare? Was it about that incident with the Quarray Eels? You know I said you could wake me if you were having troub-" I stuffed a wadded up towel into her jabbering mouth with my magic.
"I told you before, I haven't had a single nightmare about that in the three days since it happened." It probably helps that I know my way around dreams, with or without magic.
She gave me a scrutinizing look, seeing if I was hiding anything from her, but gave up and gave a muffled sigh. "Mmff mrr...." She spat out the towel, and cleared her throat to stop my snickers. "Alright, I'll believe you, I'll just ask Princess Celestia to ask Princess Luna to check on you." she mumbled something at the end there under her breath, but I couldn't make heads or tails of it.
"Soooo..." I said to get her attention. "Like I asked before, what's got you up so early?"
"Oh, well I found an interesting spell yesterday and I just couldn't wait to try it, although I will have to wait till Spike is awake."
"Oh, do you need a volunteer? I can help," I offered, while trying to gauge a pony's response to nudity, I had already figured that it wasn't exactly frowned upon, but getting out of the bath? That I didn't know the proper etiquette on.
"Oh, well that's very nice of you!" She chirped, before exiting the bathroom, leaving me alone once more. "I'll be in the library when you're done," she informed me as she closed the door.
"Okay." I then pulled up the plug on the tub, used my magic to hold a towel around myself, and shook like a wet dog, I then stared intently at the mirror through my damp long hair, waiting. After three seconds of being left alone, my hair just kinda snapped into my new default style, dry as a bone. "Well now, that was... wierd." I shook my head and quickly brushed my teeth, then went to meet up with Twilight and aid in whatever magic spell she was attempting.
"Alright, so then, what's this trick?" I asked, hopping down the last step as I came up behind the mare I was looking for.
She turnee to face me and gave me a worried look. "Uhh, you sure you want to help with this one?"
"Yeah, wait, is it dangerous?" I asked, wondering why she was being so weird about this. "If not than yeah."
"Its, not dangerous, just... ok, please hold still." She said as her horn lit up.
I mentally shrugged and just froze in a comfortable position. I felt, and saw, a feint magical tingle focusing around my muzzle.
What's this gonna do? Give me sharp teeth, that would be cool... but I don't feel it messing with anything in my mouth, so that's out. If this in going to give me lipstick I swear to god-
There was a tug, an influx of magic, and then I was sporting a white mustache, scratch that, a mustache that matched my current hair color, with little desaturated highlights to boot. When the spell finished, I lifted a forelimb and lightly tugged on the end of it, it was firmly anchored to my lip. "Huh." I twirled it a bit, Definetly stuck to me.
Sure, now I can get some decent facial hair, not before when I was...
"I have no idea how to feel about this," I admitted, looking into a mirror with mild confusion. "How long does it last?"
"Only for an hour, but I can get rid of it if you don't like it."
"Hmm..."Well, as interesting as it is to finally have one, it just looks weird on me... from an artistic perspective.
"Yeah. That's probably for the best." I sighed "Well, does that count as a succes? I have no idea if that is what that spell was supposed to do."
"Yep, that brings my total up to twenty five." She said with a small laugh, most likely at my odd appearance. The mustache on my lip vanished as quickly as it appeared, and leaving me a little itchy.
"Twenty five what?"
"Magic tricks."
I gave her a funny look. "I coulda sworn you had more spells than that under you hat."
She rolled her eyes at me, as if I was the one spouting nonsense. "I do, I said magic tricks. spells that don't have very much purpose or use." She explained.
"I can think of three uses for that one right there." I said with a head tilt.
"Oh yeah?" She said in a challenging manner. "Prove it."
"Disguise making, hair restoration, and spying inconspicuously."
"One and three are basically the same thing." She said, narrowing her eyes at me. I returned the gesture, and then she burst into laughter.
Uhh, what? What was so funny? I wandered into the kitchen now thoroughly lost. I poored myself a bowl of cereal, and continued to try and figure out what she found so humorous.
Spike came downstairs a few moments later, and greeted me with a yawn. "Moni'g Ahgen'." He waved.
I yawned back a greeting. Damn you, yawning chains. Twilight came in then, catching the tail end of the yawn, and giving her morning hello to the baby dragon. Spike began making a proper breakfast of himself and Twi, while I got up and rinsed out my bowl. "So, anything interesting happening today?"
"Eh, not really, the girls and I were planning on meeting up later at Sugercube Corner, I have forty three possible activities planned, and my enchanted saddle bags packed for any such scenario." Twilight said.
Oookay then, someone is a little too prepared for the day. "What about you Spike? Got any plans?"
"Nah, I'm just gonna make some gem cookies, read some comics." He waved his claws in the air, in the manner of someone who really has no plans for the day.
"And you are going to school." Twilight killed my mood, prompting me to drop my head onto the counter.
jeez, she's like a fricken nanny. "why?"
"Don't give me that missy," Another slam. "Your magic has been recovered for thirty six hours, forty three minutes, and forty two point three seven six seconds! You aren't getting out of it today."
Like a nanny with a stop watch... I sighed. "Fine, I guess I'll have to go then..." I said, lifting my face off the counter and turning around to go pack my bags.
I wonder just how the kids are gonna greet me today, will they have heard about the incident at the the ravine? Will they be curious as to why I was gone for so long? Will they even care?
... ah frick, do I care!?
I quickly knocked my head into the wall on my way up the stairs, to get my thoughts back in order. "Those three I could understand... maybe, but the whole school? I must not be right in the head."
or anywhere...
With that depressing thought I stuffed my bags with scattered papers and walked them down to the front door. Then I found a nice comfy window facing cushion to watch the sunrise. Sunrises on Equis are really fast, the moon dips down just beyond the horizon, and then the sun comes up, just to the side of it, the light dances on the morning dew, creating sparkling rainbows with the thin fog, it's mildly breathtaking, I have to admit.
"Time to get going then." I sighed, pulling my gaze away from the scene beyond the glass.
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I wonder if Luna is the one that will have nightmares... Maybe it could be better to just give her instructions and wait in home
Well, that's a good opportunity for the various reveals that have needed to happen for several chapters now...
If I'm right about where we are temporally, it's "Fall" from that Curiosity Rover fic all over again... or should have been, but you didn't actually get to the cockatrice part.
I was honestly expecting a cocatrice from the chapter name.
9817066
As I alluded to in my own comment... well, actual research says that's half a season away. Still, mustache spell as continuity marker was the main point of that bit.
For a one day chapter came out great with only a couple of spelling errors
Is it weird that I'm expecting diamond tiara to sing candy store from heathers?
Suggested mail system: mine carts.
She's not your nanny, she's closer to your mom by now. Wonder how she'd react to that, though.
Twiggles should worry more about Argent traumatizing Luna than otherwise.
Let's see, there's the two tile, a few four tiles, and a spare one... Yeah! Things could start coming together real soon!
Luna (Dream Mode).
School will be fun! A proper hero's welcome awaits!
Keep going! ;)
Thanks for the update!
I wonder, nobody told her about Celestia and Luna's job yet right?
Argent, take it from me. Volunteering to Twilight's experiment is always a mistake.
Here comes Trixie and Ursa. Wonder if Argent can shoot both of them with Friendship Laser?
She Turned.
I wonder if Argent and 'Night Strider' will find a mansion soon, It'll be sczry for them.
For some reason
the picture of that enderman stuck in a sand-block with a bucket over its head while mc went "NOOOPE!" 
Maybe because it's so dang relatable
One, how dare you want the corners filled in to your nether portal.
Two, just add the Minecraft tag already
She turned
Wait, why build a Nether Portal if you’re wanting to go to the-oh right Blaze Powder.
Wonder how Luna would react to the Nether?
I personally don’t find Endermen scary, they’re honestly pretty cool and chill. Never died to one, personally. I don’t think going to the End is a good idea for Argent and Luna, given how much more dangerous the Endermen are. Unless, of course, Argent changes them. His dream, he can change how the game works. The Ender Dragon would also be a big problem.
9817725
agreed on both points.
If the main OCs in this story were voiced, what would they sound like?
silly question(s) but
1: why doesnt Agrent just explain how she used to be HUMAN and an ADULT to Twilight?
2: Agrent told Luna (Night) about how he (now s he) wound up in that world, so why not tell Twliight too?
My memory has just been sold! On the centerfold doo doo da do do do, do do do dadada do do do!
Fun story, needs more proofing, as pointed out. I could lend some effort to it after Sunday.
Welp, I don't wanna have to do this, but this story is going to have to go on hiatus, due to me needing to go find a job.
I've been writing this whole thing on my phone, and need to get the money to keep my service going.
Perhaps hiatus is a but strong, but my whole schedule is pretty much going out the window.
After things settle down again, and I figure out how to balance a part time job with writing, then I'll try and reestablish a normal schedule, I apologize that this is having to happen.
On a side note, is linking things like a Patreon allowed on this site? If it is, And people were willing to pay me to write my shoddy story, I could go make one of those, although I have no idea how they work.
Sorry again!
9824831
As far as I know, you can just add it into your Author notes and not have any issue. As for setting one up, the site kinda just guides you through it.
Awww. I'm caught up and you're going on hiatus(ish). Good story, this and the last chapter need a quick proof read, but this story is great.
I look forward to seeing what happens next. Good luck on the job hunt, I know I had a hard time finding a good enough one.
Maybe consider getting a KoFi account so people have the opportunity to donate a little if they find your story worth it, I've seen several authors use a patreon and KoFi link in their authors note at the end of the chapters to help them raise a little money to keep the story going, but it isn't really something to rely on.
I look forward to seeing you when you post again!
9817394
)
We're pretty sure a simple overview was had, but not "Did you know that the one who raises the sun and the one who raises the moon are alive and we can talk to them now?". It feels like Twilight hasn't made known she's in contact with Celestia-who-raises-the-sun through Spike, just Celestia-the-Princess, though Spike has demonstrated said contact. Probably just hasn't clicked yet (but maybe in a few chapters....
So, a cultured person mining in an extreme hills biome.
I love it.
I was hoping that you would get back to your weekly schedule
9841119
I will as soon as I am able, believe me.
But at least I'm not sitting idle, this and another story are being written during this recess, I just can't post them, sorry to dissapoint.
Ooh, the wait is killing me!
In all seriousness, this story is very fun. Argent may be an everyman, but everyone around her is interestingly characterized, and she herself has enough character to be interesting.
I've heard of self-sacrifice, but that's ridiculous.
Well, that Endermare just gave me a highly disturbing mental image. Great description though, anatomy and biology classes make it more terrifying in your mind.
How is the next chapter coming along?
9885580
Well, I've written about seven chapters of a different story and forgot my plan for it till just now when I could see it so... 200 words so far!
9886094
Good to know.
9848024
I don’t really understand why you can’t post the chapters if you’ve already finished some of them
9890504
I can't post them cause they aren't on the site yet.
I've got to transfer them, format them, proof them, so on.
I've nearly got chapter twenty one done, so it'll be up in the next few days, should I be in Wi-Fi to do so.
9891104
So basically, a new chapter next Tuesday, around 10:00 to 11:00? Also, looking forward to you posting your next story!
9888595
The Luna/Argent stuff is the highlight of the story, though the rest is good as well. And while it's a neat gimmick, having Argent being either human or a tribe-switcher is backed up by having interesting characters, turning it into something truly interesting. It also helps that Argent is not perfect, being capable of making errors is judgement and misreading the situation, and not merely because the plot demands it.
So, basically, yes, it's an HiE done very well.
Keep up the good work thanks.
OOOOHH!1! 666 likes and 31 dislikes on Halloween.
9916383
Yeah... that's might've been my fault... Oops.
9891104 I’m sorry if this is just me being impatient, but already a week ago you’d said you’d post ch 21 in a few days and it’s still not up. Like I said, I’m sorry if this is just me being impatient, but if you reply to this can you give me a more specific answer as to when it will be posted
9918061
Okay, I see that I need to start putting an important word on these kinds of posts; hopefully.
Hopefully I can get ch 21 up soon, I'm currently chiseling away at a premium slab of writers block, then it will be up as soon as I can get it to you.
9925054
A quick blog post explaining the situation should help; most of us are fixated on the "weekly update" thing. Take as long as you need, and hopefully your RL stuff clears up soon.
Also, what are you using to store the chapters as you work on them? GDocs is good, as long as you put the color tags directly into the text, rater than changing the color, italics, etc. in the doc and then trying to import it.
...dammit, I want to yawn now.
Do you know how annoying it is when you feel like yawning but can't quite do it? It's worse than missing a sneeze!
NOPE NOT FEELING LIKE YAWNING ANYMORE GOSH I DIDN'T WANT TO SLEEP TONIGHT ANYWAY
Any idea when the next one will come out?
At first, I wasn't too sure about this story. The title and description had me a little confused and thrown off. But after reading it, I enjoyed it and hope it won't be abandoned like some other good stories. This is a good story, please continue it. I'd love to see what happens next.
9978133
If you noticed the different colored text, that means she's being forced to exhibit the various Elements of Harmony through her speech and actions.
9978325
Nah, he’s tryin’ to speak Russian, don’t you know how to spell Russian?
/s