Ch. 9: Midnight
Twilight was once again, up in the dead of night.
It wasn’t for any particular reason. She just didn’t feel like sleeping. Maybe she could, but she could just as easily end up laying there for two hours straight and getting even more restless. Times like this were rough. She couldn’t do much in the middle of the night, because all of her typical options for practicing in the day had some kind of major drawback, or just a minor inconvenience that would definitely snowball if she let it start. Practicing spells was a pain, either because they were too loud or because of what could go wrong if she screwed them up somehow. Reading was always an option, but she got tunnel vision with a good book, and she didn’t want to find herself looking up from her book and seeing the sunrise. And finally, wandering around looking for problems to solve or ponies to help wasn’t an option, because nobody else was awake.
Ponyville had a strangely monolithic sleeping schedule, and she would’ve otherwise felt tempted to research why, if not for the fact that it was probably just coincidence. That, and a lot of ponies just closed their doors, but didn’t go to sleep.
So, here she was, silently scratching away at a piece of parchment, writing something or other that she’d probably look back at in the morning, revise it, and throw it away. She liked to read, but the idea of writing or publishing something of her own didn’t seem appealing. That said, outside of the scratching of her quill on the paper, Ponyville was silent, devoid of even the hoots of the few owls that remained in the area (Owlowiscious included, who was perched silently in the corner of the room, head tucked beneath his wing as he slept), and completely, totally empty. Which is why she nearly jumped out of her skin when a quiet knock sounded at the door, interrupting her focus, and unfortunately, her quill stroke. She placed the quill in its ink well as quietly as possible, before trotting to the door and swinging it open.
“Greetings.” Came the deep voice of a thestral, one of Luna’s guards. He wore a peculiar armor for the guard, a much more streamlined and lightweight version, befitting of his much larger than average wings and slim build. He wore them along with a saddlebag, which he placed at her feet before bowing his head respectfully, rising up, and pushing the bag to Twilight. “Princess Luna requests your audience, and as she must do her duty of keeping the dreams of ponies safe, she asked me to bring you this.” Slightly surprised, Twilight flipped the clasp of the saddlebag, and levitating out the lone item contained, a bottle of swirling blue, with what appeared to be glitter, or another iridescent manner of particle, floating inside, and the bottle itself was wax sealed with a beautiful gold wax. “Princess Luna’s sleeping drought. Typically, she’d ask you to only drink half and return the rest, but she said specifically that with how fleetingly she’s seen you active in the dream realm, you ought to drink the whole bottle.” He bowed once more, before returning the saddlebag to his back, and taking off, leaving Twilight to wonder what Luna had to inquire about so urgently that it couldn’t wait until she fell asleep on her own.
<hr>
To say the potion worked, might’ve been an understatement.
She’d drank the bottle on the bottom floor of the Golden Oaks, and had barely managed to make it to her bed before she found herself in an area of shifting colors and swirling clouds. The Realm of Dreams.
“Greetings, Twilight Sparkle. I take it that my delivery made it to you?” Twilight bowed, nodding her head silently. “No need for that. I would like to consider us friends, and I ask that you limit the formalities in that department.”
“Right. What was it you wanted to talk about?” Luna hummed, her horn glowing briefly as a set of chairs and a table materialized in the ethereal space. The two sat down, and some unseen entity, be it Luna’s magic or simply the Dream Realm itself began magically brewing a pot of tea.
“Have you talked with Spike at all since your falling out? It appears that he’s brought himself some… let’s say divine attention.”
Twilight frowned, shaking her head. “I really haven’t been able to figure out exactly what to say. I sent one letter, but it was mostly just a lot of pictures.” Then she blinked, as if the second half of Luna’s statement only then dawned on her. “Did you say divine attention?”
Spike held out his hands, brows furrowing in concentration as he stared at the crystal, feeling a weird burning sensation well up in his palms as the crystal levitated, before falling back onto the counter top. He groaned as quietly as possible, trying not to wake up the sleeping satyr on the second floor as he quietly tried to get a grip on at least the basics of magic, both for himself, and as a cool surprise for the satyr to see when he woke up. He sighed, staring at his claws like they were supposed to know what to do. He looked back at the book, tracing the symbol onto his palm for the sixth time, before holding out his palm again. He felt the same burning sensation, and the crystal levitated all the same, but still, no luck. It was supposed to be a beginner level spell. Entrapment. It was meant to store an object within a much smaller object, for storage or moving, but for right now he couldn’t seem to get it to work. He tossed the crystal aside, checking the book again, when he found a passage that his eyes had skipped over, something that made the reason he was struggling obnoxiously clear.
“Crystals are a unique tool for practitioners. Many find that, due to their innate ability to absorb energy, crystals are great conductors for magic.” And right about here he had stopped reading last time. Unfortunately, the formatting of the page had caused the next line to appear as a different passage entirely, which he realized as he continued reading, it was not. “However, some find that when loaded with simple spells, that latent energy absorption can backfire, neutralizing the spell. It’s a common mistake for many young or experienced practitioners to make when attempting to use them as a focus for low level spells.
The terrors of improper formatting.
He sighed, before trying to think of another way to use one of the many crystals in storage, before grabbing up a different one than the one he’d been using, and placing it on the counter, looking at a Magnetize spell that looked promising.
Though, if he had looked for the crystal he’d been using, he would’ve noticed as it slowly glowed from the inside out, before slowly floating towards his idling staff, and being absorbed into the tanzanite.
Even Jupiter has to set up plans in the background sometimes.
Still, that aside, Spike tried again, vigor renewed with the knowledge that he was necessarily doing anything wrong, and felt the familiar spark of determination welling up inside him. He traced the symbol into his hand, and pointed his open palm at the crystal, feeling the burning sensation push outward, and the symbol blazed to life in the air, playing a quick set of notes, which wrapped around the crystal before absorbing into it.
Testing time. Spike walked to the other side of the room, and tapped a wall, the same symbol swirling into the wood before disappearing, and he took a brief breath, before giving a thumbs up. The crystal floated upward, and the sigil reappeared on the wall as the crystal floated toward it, and as it traveled the full distance across the room, Spike smiled as it came to a halt, floating directly in front of the sigil magically etched in the wall. He opened his palm, and released the thumbs up, the crystal falling straight into his open claw.
He probably should’ve stopped there, in hindsight.
Still riding the high of his first successful spell, he decided to mess around with it a little. The instructions in the book were very simple. Thumbs up was attract, thumbs down was repel. Simple. What the book failed to mention was the effective range of the spell was well over 300 feet, and was much faster the closer the object was to the sigil. Which meant that as Spike held the crystal in front of the sigil once more, and held up a thumbs down, he wasn’t even close to prepared as the crystal shot out from in between his claws at a disturbingly high speed, sending it shooting directly away from the sigil, and imbedding itself firmly into the wooden wall on the opposite side of the room, with a sharp knocking sound much akin to a dart sticking into a dart board, only much, much louder. He stood there for a few seconds, completely still as he listened closely for shuffling on the second floor, before sighing in relief after it didn’t come.
And nearly screaming as Kipkirui’s head poked down the ladder as he walked over to grab the crystal, making a sound like he’d swallowed his own tongue. Kipkirui didn’t look angry, as a matter of fact, he looked sort of smug, like he’d expected it to happen. It was in that split second interval between him realizing that and Kipkirui opening his mouth that he remembered Kipkirui was a divinator, and absolutely saw this coming.
“Congratulations on your first working spell. We’ll deal with the hole in the morning, for now, it’s one in the morning, and you should be asleep. Magical growth or no, you’re still a teenager, and for dragons, you’re still just a fledgling.” Just like that, Kipkirui was back up the ladder, and after standing still for a couple more seconds, Spike grabbed his staff, and climbed up after him.
“In short, Spike now has someone very powerful in his corner.” Luna drained the last of her tea, placing her front hooves on the table. “I hope that wasn’t too much information, I understand that it can be a lot for most to hear, much less understand.”
“I’m fine? It’s not that it isn’t complicated, more like… it’s just very believable when it’s coming straight from a princess.” Twilight sighed, rubbing at her temples. “It is a lot of information though. Why are you telling me this?”
Luna was silent for a moment, looking off into the vague expanse surrounding them, before looking back at Twilight. “To reassure you that Spike will be safe. Twilight Sparkle, you must understand, dreams are a direct gate to the inner psyche of a pony, of any creature, really. To manage dreams, I must see the true feelings of a pony for what they are, and not what they’re projecting on the outside.” The table between them vanished, and their chairs scooted closer together as Luna placed a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “You have been distressed about Spike for quite some time. It’s understandable, he is your family. If you seek to assure his safety, begin writing to him, even if it’s about nothing at all. But I implore you, do not bottle up your feelings, because regret is one of the most dangerous emotions. It can turn into a very slippery slope.” As she said it, she winced. It was barely perceptible, but it was there, and Twilight had to force herself to keep silent, to ignore it.
“...Thank you, Princess Luna.” Twilight sighed, and she felt disturbingly tired. She blinked a few times, and holding her eyes open only became progressively more difficult each time, the sudden onset of exhaustion reaching every inch of her body. She was only dimly aware of the dreamscape fading away around her, as Luna said, very quietly:
“Goodnight, my friend.”
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Does Luna plan to visit Spike's dreams soon as well?
Dang, give me some.
Divinator?
10988665
Seer, person who can see the future, etc.
10988585
Don't go asking for spoilers now
10989463
Oh ok
10989464
Fair enough. Let's just wait & see.