Ghost of the Everfree

by David Silver

31 - By Luminace

He couldn't hold himself back. He had to tell her! Galloping through the town without even hiding himself, he scrambled to her gate and almost ran into the unforgiving iron. Instead, he knocked on it. Why was it closed? It hadn't been last time he'd come.

The door swung open smoothly. The one that had done it stepped into view, the proper butler of Silver Spoon. "It isn't locked," he informed in his calm way. "Please, enter."

Oh! Dry reached for the gate and jiggled it a bit until he found how it latched and got it open with a soft squeak. "Sorry, sir."

"Think nothing of it. Have you come for the lady?" He stood straight, eyes forward, and so very formal.

"Yes, please." Dry hurried, but only after he closed the gate behind himself. "Is that alright?"

"Very good, sir." He turned in place. "This way, please." He lead Dry to a small room with a low table that had a few snacks on it. "She will be by shortly." With a last nod, he vanished quietly out the door.

Not that the door stayed closed for long. Dry had barely dared to put a hoof on a cookie when it burst open. "Hey!" she called, hopping into the room. "I didn't expect you back so fast. What's up?"

Had he come too quickly? "Um. I did my first spell." That was important enough, right? He hoped.

"Ooo." She didn't sound upset. "Which one? Was it a cantrip? I'll be bummed if it wasn't and you can't, like, show me."

He dared to smile. She looked entirely pleased by things. "Pres ti digits ation," he said each word slowly and precisely. "It's a spell that does magic tricks."

"Neat!" She clapped her hooves. "So, show me! What're you waiting for? I wanna see!"

He said the magic words and did the magic dance. He could feel that force in his head, waiting to do things. "Alright, now..." He looked around for what to magic. "Ah." He pointed to her face and her glasses slowly lifted into the air.

She squeaked, grabbing them with both hooves and forcing her glasses back onto her face. "I need those!"

Oops. He blushed, realizing after the fact that was a prank too far. He willed a cookie to rise instead, hovering up hover the plate it had been resting on.

Silver casually snatched it from the air and took a crunchy bite from the defenseless cookie. "Neat. Can it do anything else?"

"I'm a magician!" He clapped his hooves and brought them back apart, revealing a pile of crude animal tokens that spilled to the ground in a heap that broke and shattered on impact.

Silver burst into giggles at the display. "Don't make a mess." But the broken things were dissolving into nothing before her eyes. "Hm... What else?"

Dry let the rest of the animal tokens fall from his hooves. "Um, this!" He waved at her glasses but thought better of it at the last second, instead covering her face with tiger stripes.

"Ee, what was that?" Apparently she could feel something happening. She got out a mirror quickly to scope the damage. "You... painted me." She peered at her tiger-striped face. "Does this wash off?"

Um... "I..."

"You have no idea." She looked more amused than appalled. "Well, that spell put it there, see if it can get rid of it."

"Good idea!" His girlfriend was so clever! He focused on her stripes, imagining them being cleaned away. It was as if a thousand unseen brushes were scrubbing away the marks, eating away at the stripes slowly but steadily until her face was left as unblemished as it started.

Silver was watching the whole thing with her mirror. "I had a feeling you could do it." She lowered her mirror, tucking it back into her side. "This is, like, super cool. Can it do anything else?"

"Hm. Well... I can make things. I can color things. I can clean things..." Dry tapped his hooves with each thing. "I can lift things up into the air and put them back down. That's already a lot."

"It is, don't get me wrong, but it sounds like you don't know, so! I suggest you sleep on it." She smiled at his confused expression. "I mean it. The spell is up here." She tapped at his head. "So think about it, let it come to you. A good night's sleep with it bouncing around up there will help you understand it. You can think about it tomorrow when you pray too. Luminace wants her priests to know what her spells do. Ignorance is bad, but wanting to fix it is one of the most wonderful things. She won't leave us hanging. Just have faith!"

Faith, yes. Dealing with divinities required that. "She wouldn't let me down." He felt certain of that. Luminace was a kind and knowledgeable god. Surely she'd share the secrets of the spell she had given him. He smiled suddenly, a bright dawn of his features. "This is fun."

"Isn't it?!" She bounced forward, landing at his side. "It's so nice to have somepony else around to share this with. I don't have that spell... But maybe if I prayed for it, tomorrow, I'd get it...." She suddenly waved a hoof in front of her face. "But now I sound like I'm trying to one up you. Like, no way. Congratulations!" She threw her hooves up and wide. "You did it! Your very first spell. That's a huge step, and I'm not, like, trying to say it isn't. It's just us divine sorts--" She waved a hoof between herself and Dry rapidly. "--We get our spells from the same kinda place, so any spell I do, you can do, if you're good enough, which we're working on. Other way around too."

Dry took a little brownie from the table, nibbling at it. "So do you get one cantrip?"

"Hm?" She turned to watch him. "Do you mean, like, at a time? I assume Luminace only gave you one because you're super new to it. She doesn't want to hurt you, filling your head with too much at once." She tapped at her head. "I have five cantrips ready to go."

"Wow!" He did not disguise his awed amazement. "So I have to practice... alright." He casually colored himself, green and brown colors settling over him as if something was spray painting him busily. "There, now I can hide better."

Silver considered her camo-colored boyfriend. "Mmm, nah. That's not working for me." She pushed him towards the door. "But keep practicing."

"Eep!" He was being dismissed, physically. "Are you busy?"

"I usually am." Silver nudged him further on. "You think being me is easy? I have a lot to do. Super happy to see you though. Meet you tomorrow at class, alright?"

"At class." The door slapped shut, sealing him out in the doorway. "Bye." His girlfriend was pretty, and rich, but also busy, as rich people tended to be. That was part of the package. If he wasn't ready to accept that, perhaps he was in the wrong place.

"This way." The butler had returned silently to show Dry to the exit. "Thank you for visiting."

It all seemed to happen so quickly, but there he was, outside the manor. Hm. But he was also a spellcaster. He was more than just some random pony. He smiled at the thought of it. He would learn more, and do more. He... It felt giddy in a way and he began walking along the road, unable to hold still. He'd be one of the big ones. Which meant things would attack him... He'd have to get better at hiding. Spells would help with that, right?

Great power had its ups and downs, and he was barely in the front door... "Oh!" There were ponies he could ask that weren't rich socialites with too much to do. He raced off to find the crusaders. That time he thought to peek in the window of their clubhouse first, to not interrupt them if they were giving a consultation. Nope, just the three, talking about something or other. He couldn't hear what.

Easy to fix! He knocked on the door. It popped open, revealing Apple Bloom. "Hey there!" She waved at him with a bright smile. "Come on in."

Scootaloo waved from where she was sitting. "Dry! I told the girls about your first spell."

Sweetie clapped eagerly. "I know that spell! It's a fun one."

Dry twitched his ears. "But I thought it was a holy spell." He stepped inside the clubhouse. "You're a bard."

"I'm a what? Oh! Right, yes." She was not as familiar with the term as one would expect one who was that. "Some spells are just so good they turn up all over." Sweetie pointed at herself and the other girls. "We're all kindsa different, but we share spells."

Scootaloo bobbed her head. "Sometimes, when I figure one out that Apple Bloom really likes, she copies it, but into a recipe. How that works, I have no idea."

Apple Bloom rolled her eyes at that. "Spells are recipes already, just not ones that turn into potions, usually. I just translate it into a potion recipe. Same effect, in a potion. Same magic. Scootaloo and I use the same kind of magic. Sweetie doesn't, and I bet you don't either."

Sweetie shook her head quickly. "Nope! He's with Silver Spoon, doing God Magic." She waved her hooves mysteriously at the phrase. "I do social magic, like my singing--" She sang that part out musically, a sweet held note. "And you two do, what was it...? Arcane! Arcane magic, the most magicky magic, if you think about it. Twilight must be proud."

All three laughed at this. Apple Bloom dashed off to a cupboard. "We didn't expect you to stop by today, but the timing's great." She pulled out a small round cake and set it between them all. "Congratulations!"

"Yay!" cried Sweetie Belle, transitioning to a proper song. "Your very first spell, bet you can't quite tell. It's a huge step, trust me here, great power is coming near. Use it carefully, your specialty. You are full of good will and integrity."

Scootaloo whooped at the finale of the little song. "Yeah! I'd rate you at 2/10 for will turn out to be a super villain some day." She threw an arm over Dry, hugging him with it. "Welcome to the magic club!"

The other two fillies quickly joined with a communal cheer for their friend's achievement. Dry was left trapped between them with an awkward smile. "I... I will try to use it properly." He slipped free, sitting in front of them. "In a way Luminace would be proud. To find, learn, and share."

Apple Bloom laughed at the idea. "Those all sound like good goals. But which of 'em is yer goal?"

"Um." He considered that with a little frown. "To find, and share, I think..." He waved off at the camera that wasn't there. "I like seeing, especially new things, and sharing them." He began to smile, more and more by the moment. "That is how I will glow with a little of Luminace."

Sweetie swatted him on the back. "Now that's a goal I can get behind. I'm not much of a photographer myself, but you are great at it. It's like magic, with less funny words."

With a sly smile, Dry leaned forward. "But aren't the funny words most of the fun?"

Scootaloo howled with laughter. "He's not wrong."

Apple Bloom set a hoof at her hip. "Hey now. My magic don't have no funny words at all, and ah think it's powerful fun, thank ya very much."

Oh no, he had offended one of his friends, his first in that land. "Your potions are very impressive. I'd love to see how they can be fun too."

Author's Note:

Dry is feeling the rush of gaining a level, even if it isn't level 1 just yet.

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[Booster Spice]

Working hard on how to use the Unspeakable Spell on removing sap, leads to learning the specific spell, Clean?