Redo's and Reckonings: Lost and Found

by Pinnacle Adventures

Chapter 3: First Failings

Redos and Reckonings: Lost and Found

Chapter 3

Later that same day I was taken to Dusk’s place. A modest cottage in the suburban area of Equestria. Along the way I caught words of the war. SOme tense, others with little hope, but all of them glad some kind of cease fire had been agreed to. A DMZ had been established and the frontlines ordered to be only minimally manned. Apparently the first few waves of soldiers were due home in just about a week. I also managed to learn how to trot, and it only ended in ten trips and three faceplants.

When I made it to my new home I sighed my way into the living room and flopped onto a long floor mat obviously meant for a horse to just well… flop onto.

“Dusk,” I began, “I have no idea what I'm supposed to do with those two idiots. What do they even think I am?”

“Well…” Dusk began by shutting the door and locking it, “There might be a bit of concern that you are… a wishing star. Incarnated into a mortal or possibly immortal form.”

“What? But how would they know?”

“What do you think? They sensed your magic. We thought we covered it up but-”

“Woah woah woah… covered up? YOU SUMMONED ME!?”

Dusk backpedaled toward the wall as I glared at him, “I mean.. Me and twilight.. We meant to make a wish to end the war but for some reason it just… I just don’t know what went wrong… just please don’t flay me alive!”

“What? Oh geez, no no no, that was an act. If anything I'm grateful it's just that… ugh I want to roll over and pass out for a few hours. I feel dead inside after whatever it was I did.”

Dusk brightened slightly at the threat being removed, but he seemed concerned still, “Like i said you split off bits of your soul to grant wishes and exercise your power.”

“Did I do that though? Did I wield some paracausal power, big words I know, or did I just manipulate them into THINKING I did all that and it was really just them doing it to themselves.”

“I know, grant me a wish, a tiny one.”

“Look dude I don’t know how to do it i just… I dunno it's like I lied so good I made it real or something. I don’t know if I CAN do it on purpose… not yet anyway.”

“May I have a glass of water?”

I squinted at him, “Dude it’s your house sure you can.”

My head spun and I felt lightheaded for a moment before a shimmering light appeared before Dusk and suddenly a massive barrel sized glass of water appeared before him with a silly straw for good measure.

“Ugh, what… How did I?” Thankfully I didn't feel like vomiting this time, but the dizziness was still something awful.

Dusk was rubbing his chin, then he leaned forward and sipped on the straw which took a good ten seconds to flow all the way through. With a click of his lips after a good long drink he concluded.

“Wow, that's some pretty good water actually. Thanks.”

“Yeah, no p-problem, ugh…”

“However, you need to work on your control.“

“Yeah no duh.”

“Not only did you grant the wish with a whim, you also gave me A LOT MORE than I wanted. You might have given Sombra and Celestia more than they wished for as well.”

“Oh great… well at least it’ll make‘em think i’m more powerful than they imagined.”

“And if you grant the wrong wish you might cause more damage than you meant to as well.”

“...S&@T, you’re right.”

Dusk held his head for a minute, “Would you stop with the curse words? I don’t know what they are to you but it actually HURTS to hear them spoken like that.”

“Oh F… frikk really?” His nodding and head rubbing confirmed it, “Great and I swore like a sailor back where I was from.”

“Just work on it alright? I thought my head was gonna explode when you and those two stopped censoring yourselves back at the clinic. Nopony is even supposed to know those words exist! That’s how powerful they are!”

“Wow okay, big news time for me then. I’ll try, cross my heart and hope to… fry. I guess.”

“Need to know anything else about the wide world before bed?”

“Well, how about what's in these saddlebags. The glasses are great. Where did you get’em?”

“Oh um, those manifested with you. You didn't find them before Applejack took you to the clinic so I just brought them to you otherwise I never would have encountered you. At least not that quickly.”

“So… what you’re saying is-”

“You have some kind of destined armory in there.”

I rifled through the bag and gasped, “Oh sweet a greatsword!”

“WHAT!?” Dusk said as he galloped over to my side.

“Just kidding. No it's actually some kind of-” I pulled it out slowly, “-notebook or a diary maybe? It has a lock on it.”

“Is there anything written in it?”

“I don’t know let me… woah,” I opened it up and the pages were scrawled with all manner of scribbles and ramblings that made no sense. Page after page of them. Each one sounded like a kindergartner trying to write a riddle. “These make any sense to you?”

I showed him the book’s pages and the moment he looked at it he shut his eyes and shouted in pain before swatting it away. “Agh! What… OW.” However after I even did that he was still grasping at his head, then he opened his eyes and they were turning bright white.

I shut the book quickly and clasped it shut. The moment I did his eyes ceased lighting up and he gasped a few times like he had been drowning.

I plainly asked, “What… what was that?”

“I don’t know… I don’t know if I want to know what's in that book. My head… I felt like I was going to explode… twice”

I looked at it, “Is it a weapon?”

“Perhaps?”

I had to make sure of something. I opened the clasp, easy as pie, then I closed it again, “Try to open the clasp. Don’t look in it though.”

He hovered it over with his magic, and I saw the aura focus on the clasp. It struggled, shook, even creaked a bit, but ultimately even as his horn flared a secondary aura around itself he sighed, “Thank goodness it's not budging at all. I think it's safe as long as YOU don’t open it.”

“Good, the gun has a safety.”

“The what has a what?”

“Don’t worry about it, just glad they don’t exist here. So what else do we have?”

One saddlebag was empty, so I went to the other. Inside there was an mp3 player, “O wow a... trotman? Really is that what it's called?” The logo said as much.

“A whatman?”

“It uh, it plays music. But I don't see a jack for headphones. How is it supposed to-” I clicked the oversized play button and shivered when I suddenly felt live music playing clearly and plainly in my head. “Woah… hey you hear that?”

He shook his head.

“Wow it’s beaming songs directly into my head.” I thought of another song, and boom suddenly it was playing in my head instead, “But wait what if i want something new to listen to-” Just like that a song i never heard before was streamed directly into my audio brain center.

“Okay definitely gotta put this one down for later.”

The next thing I pulled out was a silver necklace with several sapphire gemstones socketed into it, “Huh. I wonder what this thing does.” I looked at Dusk and he was rubbing his chin again. “You got an idea over there dude?”

“Put it on, I wanna try something.”

I did as he said.

“Okay, grant me a wish. Ready?”

I nodded.

“I wish I was ten legs tall.”

“You wish is my comma-ah-ah-AAAAA-” the necklace brightened for a moment and I horsey sneezed out a pure silver dust out of my nose. “Ugh…” He said gesundheit to me, which I giggled at, then I realized, “hey I don’t feel like I just ripped a part of me out of myself!”

“So it looks like we found your training wheels.”

“BUCK YEAH!” I said excitedly, “But wait what if someone forces it off of me?”

Dusk hmmed, then wrapped his aura around my necklace and tried to lift it, nothing, messed with the clasp behind my neck, nothing still. Then he came over and tried to manually lift it over my head and not only did he have a hard time getting his hooves to grasp it he couldn’t make it budge an inch.

“So it seems only you can decide when it's time to grant a wish.”

“Oh thank goodness. Was afraid someone would take advantage of me like this. Never gonna take this one off.”

“Probably best if you didn’t. Not until you know how to not subconsciously grant wishes.”

“Right.” I then rifled through the saddlebag for the last remaining item, “Oh! A camera! Old one too, the old click click snap kind! Oh and it's a polaroid! The memory maker 9000, ay? Ha look it even has the little mechanical arm hooks on it like the paparazzi have so I can snap pics without using my hooves.”

“Anything special about it?”

“I dunno, want me to take your picture? Not everything has to be super magical right? I mean the glasses are just glasses right?”

“You know why not? Oh but I better keep the glamor up in case someone sees it later.”

“Good idea!” He stood up straight and reinforced the golden coated false form he had. “Say cheese!”

“Cheeeeese~” he said with a smile and a snap of the camera.

Moments later the polaroid came out and I grabbed it and shook it about a few times to get the picture to come out quicker. When I looked at it I paled. “What the?”

Dusk didn’t like the look on my face, “What do you mean what the?”

“Well i mean… wait… Dusk do you have a sister? White coat, blue mane?”

“Well yeah Gleaming, but she uh… she passed on a while ago in the war.”

“Well… you might wanna take a look at this.”

I showed him the picture, and his eyes went wide. The picture was of him standing proud as he had been, with a smile on his face. His glamor was gone however, and standing next to him with her hooves wrapped around his shoulders, was Gleaming with tears in her eyes as she smiled too.

“I… but… how…”

“Do you… want to keep it?”

He seemed on the verge of crying. Then he jumped and looked over his shoulder.

“Dude you okay? I mean, obviously you're not but like, you good?”

“Yeah… yeah I just swore I felt somepony touch my shoulder.”

“You want me to take another?”

He seemed to consider it, then shook his head, “No… no I don’t… I’m sorry Twilight that wound is too fresh for me.”

“Sorry, I just… Can I ask how it happened?”

He became even more somber, “It was Sombra and Umbra… the day they took the crystal empire down and made it their capital city. It’s called the citadel of shadows now. Gleaming and Cadence… they gave their lives to teleport over half the population out of there. They didn't save everypony, but they got every colt and filly under the age of twenty five out so they wouldn’t have to suffer the rule of the shadow court.”

“I… I understand… If it’s okay with you I think I'm ready for dinner then bed.”

“Yeah… but let’s end it on a happy note. You want a hayburger? Oh I know the best joint in town, heck in all of Equestria and it's right down the street I’ll be right back.”

I smiled, “Hurry back!”

Three days later…

There was a knock at the door.

“Oh, is that the pizza!?” I said excitedly as I half galloped over to the door. Then suddenly Dusk held a hoof out to me to make me back up.

“It's… it's Zippy and Bully.” He looked out the porthole again as the knocking returned more insistent.

“Wait, aren't those some of the advisors they asked for.”

‘Yes… but they hate each other. Why are they together?“

“Delivering a message maybe?”

“Whatever it is… I don’t like it.”

“Well open the door, I’ll get over on the couch and look regal and annoyed.”

“Okay.” He waited a moment then opened the door with practiced care, “Look what do you want she said to not be disturbed for at least 4 more days and-”

“My deepest apologies,” Zippy Feathers, the dark and almost midnight blue pegasus from King Sombra with a stark white mane began, “Our benefactors simply wish to express their concern over the well being of the wishing star. You see, they-”

The deep brown and green maned Bully Bravado hammered in, “They don’t trust you Dusk, especially Celestia after she figured out what you and Twilight did, so we’re here to make sure YOU’RE not making your own wishes! Or worse yet, manipulating her!”

“But I-”

I jumped in, “Do you seek to entertain the notion I am incapable of seeing falsehood and manipulations myself!”

I was ‘reading’ my unreadable diary before I clasped it shut dramatically and glared at them overtop my squared glasses.

“Ah, miss wish, a pleasure to meet you-” the pegasus slipped his way past Dusk, but before he got more than two steps in I flicked my wrist at him.

A snap like thunder echoed around the room and he froze, petrified with his eyes still moving and chest still breathing.

(good, just like i practiced, but oof that hurt a little bit. Alotta lot actually.) I just eyed the Big Mac sized guard pony who tried to enter the room with daggers in my eyes and he cowered almost immediately. I returned my attention to ZIppy.

“Shall you let me speak or do you wish to stay that way till I finish Zippy? Blink twice for being subservient to my will.”

He did so, fear in his eyes… I hated the look of it. I flicked my wrist again and gave him control over his body again.

“So… YOu wish to keep an eye on the deal then. Relay information to your superiors?”

They both nodded respectfully.

I rubbed at my chin for a while, then spoke, “You shall… but the deal shall be altered, and if they protest just tell them that this is punishment for sending you here EARLY! Understood.”

“Yes, mam!” The two trained soldiers said plainly.

“Obviously they have too much time on their hooves. So I am making them more mortal. They will need to eat, bathe, SLEEP, and have jobs.” I snapped my wrist four times, a loud bang for every one. And the windows creaked, “Opportunity will be made for them to have jobs pertaining to their falsehoods, but let them know this, this lengthens how long it will be until the true wish can be cast. If they break the deal again they will have to wait even longer and that's if i even decide to be benevolent again and give them a chance at it. Now go, go and let them know that if you are to return in four days to be their meddling watchmen we will need a bigger home. This place will not do and the neighbors are too noisy at any rate.” They stood for a moment and I let out a booming, “GO!” which lit a fire under their plots and made them really start moving.

When Dusk shut the door behind them he looked at me with pride, and then concern. I was wobbling while sitting and holding my stomach and mouth.

“You went too far didn’t you?”

I nodded and he went to get the training bucket. When he brought it I immediately wretched into it, even heavier than I did before at the clinic.

Then there was another knock at the door. I groaned. Then Dusk just smiled.

“You still wanna try that hay bacon pizza?”

I smirked, “yeah just give me a minute.” He opened the door and hovered the pizza into the apartment. Then when he turned around he saw me staring at the bucket’s contents intently.

“Everything alright.”

“Dusk… It's black… the vomit is black Dusk I think there’s blood in the vomit.”

The pizza dropped to the floor.

“Dusk what… what's gonna happen if i grant the big wish… Dusk i-i… Dusk tell me this gets easier… tell me I won’t…”

He galloped over and wrapped me in a warm hug.

“Oh god what did i get myself into Dusk!? What did I do!?”

I cried into his arms as the world just kept on spinning. Leaving me to question just how powerful I thought I truly was.

END OF CHAPTER 3