In the end, we ran into two problems.
One, I didn’t actually give off enough passive magic to keep it going. The enchantment wouldn’t hold, even in ‘passive mode’ where it didn’t do anything unless I actively focused on magic. It just broke. According to Celestia, this was expected. Even Midnight or Twilight didn’t give off enough yet. Cadence was old enough to be just over that limit.
Two, when cast, the spell caused the feathers and lock of mane braided into a lock of mine to drop straight through and onto the floor. Apparently that was not expected and according to Celestia, hilarious.
That more than the first version made this version of the spell a non-option. So eventually I would need a different spell unless I wanted to have…
…The dream realm overlaying on top of reality around me. Which was fucking scary and still less scary than Cadance.
Which brought me to this.
I frowned down at the papers strewn across the floor before me, pen floating in my magic as I considered the… okay, pretty crazy looking scribblings.
It was meant to be the first draft of a new spell.
I wanted to try the entire ‘flowing shadows from wings’ thing. But there was no spell like that which meant I had to create it.
Celestia thought it was a good exercise so here I was, doing math. Fireplace on one side for more than enough light and Celestia by my other, making sure I kept on task.
Not my best evening. But far from the worst.
Glancing to the side, I spotted Celestia looking at me closely.
“What?” I asked, putting the pen down, “Looking at the feathers?”
Celestia smiled and shook her head, “Actually, no,” she admitted, shifting her wings, “Your ear.”
I blinked in surprise and turned to look at her fully, “My ear?” I asked, glancing upwards and flicking my ears, “What about my ear?”
“No, nothing,” she said with a smile, “I just noticed how different it was in detail to a pegasus ear.”
“...Pegasi have different ears?” I asked with a frown, “Wait, no I know they do. Do all the tribes have different ears?”
“Of course they do!” Celestia laughed softly, “Earth ponies tend to be a bit thicker and, pegasi a bit smaller, unicorns a bit narrower. Bats are apparently large with a cute little tuft of hair at the tip.”
I watched her in amusement, flicking my ears again.
“What, surely you noticed that ponies differ more than earth ponies larger, pegasi wings, unicorns horn?” Celestia asked with a grin.
“Uhm,” I admitted, “Well…”
Celsetia stared at me for a long moment, “Seriously?”
“I have only really studied unicorns and alicorns in that close detail!” I protested with a blush.
Celestia looked amused but nodded, “Understandable,” she finally said with a smile, flicking her own ear.
“...I can however tell you the difference between how I look now and how I looked before,” I said, “I assume that’s similar to the difference between a bat and a pegasus?”
“Should be, yes,” she agreed.
“Well, starting top to bottom,” I said and glanced up, “You already noticed the ears. Larger than a pegasus, little cute tufts of hair at the tip and more mobile than pegasi ones.”
I demonstrated by twisting them back and forth, “Excellent for echolocation.”
Celestia nodded, grabbing a spare paper in her magic and stealing my pen.
Smiling, I turned a bit towards her, meeting her eyes, “Then we get to the eyes. Adapted for low light, excellent night vision. Slitted pupils as you can see.”
“I can,” she agreed as her pen moved across the paper, “Noticed any difference in color sense?”
“Not really,” I admitted, “So I think it’s similar at least. Size is also similar to pegasi. Maybe slightly better at detecting motion. Moving on, we have a muzzle full of big scary teeth.”
“Stop,” Celestia said, “Forgot the nose.”
“The nose?” I asked, glancing down at mine, “I haven’t noticed anything different.”
She raised an eyebrow, “So I haven’t seen you literally sniff out which apple is the freshest in the fruit bowl?”
“...Okay, so maybe it is a bit better,” I admitted, “But it seems tuned to food. Useful in a jungle setting I would think.”
Celestia nodded, “Indeed it would. Please continue.”
“Then we get to the muzzle,” I said, opening mine, “Sharp fangs, cutting teeth.”
She studied my teeth, “You have very little in the grinding teeth all other tribes have. Bat ancestors didn’t eat a lot of grain.”
I shook my head, “In my experience, it seems to have been a mixed diet of fruit and meats. At least that’s what my nose keeps telling me to eat.”
Nodding, Celestia scribbled it down.
“Also, the tongue is longer and narrower than before,” I continued and stuck it out, giving it a small wiggle.
“Useful,” she said with a small smirk.
“Some think so,” I agreed with one of my own, “Continuing down,” I said as I moved to sit up, “We get to the general bodyplan. Very similar to that of a pegasus, but generally smaller in size. As an alicorn, I am the exception, but I still expect I’ll never reach even Luna’s current size. I noticed the last six months or so that my growth seemed to have slowed a bit already. It’s possible I won’t get as big as Cadance even.”
“Not sure you can count on that,” she pointed out, “Alicorn growth is sporadic. I’m not even sure I have reached my full size yet.”
“True,” I admitted and stood up, “Continuing on, while size is smaller, there is little in the way of difference in proportion to a pegasus.”
“I’m not sure,” Celestia said, studying me with a practiced eye, “I think your barrel may be slightly narrower.”
“Well, it would make it easier to fly in the forest,” I agreed, “Which brings us to the wings!”
I spread and raised mine, “Even ignoring the easily seen things such as lack of feathers and the bare flight skin, they are also larger than pegasus wings compared to body size. Not only longer, but also wider. In short, they are made for slow and very maneuverable flight.”
“Made to fly through a dense forest,” Celestia agreed.
“An equally skilled and athletic bat will never beat a pegasus in a distance or speed race,” I agreed, “But I bet there are bats in Nocturnis that could beat even Rainbow Dash through the forest.”
I flexed my wings, shifting them and spreading them, folding and stretching to let them see before I folded them to my sides again, “Continuing on my tail,” I said and shifted it to the side, curling and flexing it, “While I have seen some earth ponies able to use them to hold things, they aren’t made to take their weight like ours are. Bat tails are also more flexible and outright prehensile.”
Celestia nodded, “Made to be hanging from when sleeping.”
“Yep,” I agreed, “So comfortable. And on, we have the legs. Pretty similar to pegasi until we get down to the hooves.” I said, raising a forehoot to let her see, “A bit smaller, a bit narrower than a pegasus hoof. Also, the surface is a bit grippier.”
Celestia glanced down at her hoof before reaching out to touch hers to mine, “So I feel.”
I smiled at her and nodded, “Actually pretty useful during the winter, which is ironic because bats hate the cold.”
“Which is another point,” Celestia said with a smile, “Thinner coats and better heat resistance. And you shed water a bit better.”
“Yep. It’s not all good,” I pointed out, “Also, naturally nocturnal. In fact, bright sunlight makes us sleepy and if not careful, can burn our wings.”
Celestia frowned in thought, “I wonder why. Why are bats nocturnal when no other ponies are?”
“Actually, I think it’s about where bats are from,” I said, “The jungle is lethal. But the darkness of the night makes it easier to hide when moving about than the day where we can sleep it away in a tree, away from dangers..”
“I suppose that could be it,” she agreed thoughtfully, “But once upon a time the rest of Equestria weren’t that much safer.”
“Thanks to you, it’s not anymore,” I said as I settled back down, smiling up at her.
She smiled back, a bit sadly this time, “Not me. That were other ponies.”
“Ponies you and Luna led.”
Celestia sighed softly and brushed her wing across my back, “I think we have gotten away a bit from our current task.”
“So we have,” I admitted and got comfortable, taking the pen from her magic before I scowled at my papers, “...This is not right.”
“No, no it is not,” Celestia agreed with a smile, “Can you find the error?”
Sighing softly, I got back to work.
Nice
"Bats in the belfry, DING! DING!"
To be fair, Rainbow Dash is built like a crossbow bolt: quick enough to kill anything at the destination, durable enough to do it more than once, and anything else is a bonus. She has enough trouble not crashing into buildings in a small town where she barely even needs or wants to be at an altitude where that's possible; if she's going through the jungle she's going through the jungle.
Absolutely flabbergasted adorable Thestral ears ♡
Celestia:
"Than there is the difference in Stallionhoods!"
Blank Page:
"You can not be serious..."
Celestia:
"Ask Luna! It was her idea to research it!"
Blank Page:
"You got to janking my tail..."
Celestia:
"I AM DEAD SERIOUS!"
Blank Page:
Celestia:
"Earth ponies have the thickest and biggest meat to beat and stamina for days..."
Blank Page:
"I noticed my Alicorn stamina did indeed give me impressive performance overall."
Celestia:
"Pegasus have the longest but slimmest parts."
Blank Page:
"Less drag in the air, makes sense."
Celestia:
"Unicorn have the most stimulus in their shape, every mare can tell a unicorn by the feeling alone."
Blank Page:
"I always wondered about the outside shape and the flare..."
Celestia:
"I wonder what a Thestral looks like..."
Blank Page:
"You are welcome to visit Nocturnis for a show and tell..."
Celestia:
"I have to ask my sister if there was a difference with you in Pegasus trait Alicorn stallion and now your Thestral trait Alicorn stallion."
Blank Page:
"Yep, but I will not tell!"
Celestia:
"That is just not fair..."
Blank Page:
"Don't worry, about never finding out... Twilight actually made a diagram and everything with Lunas help of before and after Discord changes to me."
Celestia:
"I got to see this!"
Blank Page:
"To bad we are still a while here in training."
Discord: "Here you go, even some in-action pictures!"
Blank Page:
"WHAT?! HOW?!"
Discord: "Sunset Shimmer is making a mint selling them... Your herd is rich again by the way. Especially after I help sell them to Playcolt!"
O... here is your copy Celly!"
Celestia:
Blank Page:
Discord:
👍
Fluttershy in Nocturnis:
!
!
!
!
That's really sweet
great chapter
11609324
Maybe but it up to both Celestia and him whether to keep trying and neither wants to. She doesn't trust it and he doesn't see the point when there are other spells that can get the job done with less power.
11602962
Yeah and considering sometimes those two are like 2 peas in a pod it's amazing that they haven't even been on a date much getting together. Luna would happily let her sister in the herd if she wanted to be part but Celestia probably doesn't want to take anything from her sister after what happened. It will take a lot of time before her sister really gets a spotlight like Celestia does.
Celestia got some Beefcake showing while making it a lesson....
<.<
>.>
>.<
Murphy time to cause some MiScHiEf!!!!
*Murphy causes Celestia to go into a Very INTENSE HEAT*
Celestia: I WANT MY BAT HUSBANDO TO BREED MEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!
Blank Page: Oh $hit!
*Narrator voice*
... And here we see the male performing the mating dance, showing off all of its best physical features to the female in order to woo the female's affection. As is common for the species Oblivious Maximus it was actually the female who - either by subconscious latent interest or mere accident - actively prompted the start of the display, rather than the male starting on its own. We will continue to observe this - as of yet merely potential - couple and are very curious if either of the partners will actually break through the species' (as Dr. Cadance put it so succinctly) "Romantic Obliviousness so dense it puts depleted arcanite to shame".
Celestia: Hmm I wonder..is your tail able to split into different sections and retain their prehensile nature?
Page: I don't know...but I can try!
ONE HOUR LATER..
Page: Whelp my limit is 5 before it get too risky to hold my weight. Especially with this ceiling not having enough sturdy tail holds.
Celestia: Wow from down here, you look like a spider in a web.
Page: While not practical, this will be fun entrance to do for Canterlot nobles. "Welcome to my lair! All paths leads to doom!"
Celestia: Please dont...at least not when I'm there to do the paperwork on the complaints!
(Windy here! I'm sorry I'm late. Im far from home right now and WiFi is awful out here!)
11612628
Love this out of field humor 👍
11612627
That sound like a great line of comedic documentary.
Please continue to do so in future chapters 👍
11612503
Isn't Celestia always a heat to deal with? She leaves no colt cold, her presence alone heat the heart of anycreature around her 👍
11612091
OBJECTION! Glorious chapter 👍
11612247
To soon without many mares already, playing the long game is more beneficial anyway.
Blank Page will need a shoulder to cry on when his lovers and friends start dying off due to old age.
Celestia has lived through and be perfect for it.
Also the distracting will be most effective ~♡
Page might want to check that bet before he places it.
True, she has a tendency to crash a lot, but she's not without considerable agility, like here
@ 2:29, Rainbow Dash is cutting 90° turns at warp 9, which should give any thestral a run for the money.
(sorry about picking this one, but it's the only one I could find on internet search that shows the image )
Fuck no pls.
Yes!!!
Minor grammar jackboot, which I feel obligated to point out since no one else has:
wasn't