Cradle of Dreams

by AterHut

Chapter Thirteen — My Element Is What Now

It took me over an hour before I began to realise what had just happened.

“Thirty metres…”

Just a week ago I was struggling to reach the top of the bookshelf, and now I'm able to reach further than I could have ever hoped.

Not without great effort, but still.

I met this spike in my abilities so calmly because I didn't realise how big it was. But now that I do, I want to share my excitement with someone.

But there's only the shine of the stars and quiet murmur of a stream to share with.

And a not-so-quiet snore from a mare who was so worried about me that she fell asleep as soon as we got here.

“I definitely shouldn't tell her about this part when she wakes up.”

She cares about me so much that she falls asleep as soon as everything calms down. I keep it a secret that she snores like a yak, that's how friendship works, right?

If so, I'm glad friendship is a thing.

I should get some rest too, but I can't wake her up or just leave her here, so I have to sit here and slowly catch up with everything that's happened lately.

It feels like it's been a month or two.

I wonder if mom and dad are worried about me. I wonder what kind of person this mare that has taken my place and if she is doing the job well.

I'd be quite angry if that damn library got all dirty again.

Does Mr Wavers scold her as much as he scolded me? Does Black jumpscares her like he used to with me?

Many other questions kept popping up in my mind, whether they were about the past or my future.

But only one of them I was able to answer.

Had I made the right decision when I decided to go on this journey?

Another loud snore hit my ears.

I couldn't help but smile.

Yes, I definitely did.
Making friends with a one pony might be a silly reason to give up all these incredible prospects I've been given, but it feels so much more important now, and I'm more than happy with that.

“Huh… morning, Rettie, what's with that weird smile you're giving me? And why is it so dark in here?..”

Looks like she finally woke up. It's a rather awkward experience to be caught looking at somepony sleeping, especially by that very pony.

“Nah, it's nothing, anyway, I gotta get some sleep too, so see ya, Tea!”

I hurriedly left the scene, accompanied only by a quiet "huh?" from behind.

A little rest and a whole new world of magic awaits!

. . .

A whole week later, Miss Velvet finally returned to the bakery, prancing happily.

“Hey Rettie, I'm bac- oh dear…”

She was greeted by empty bakery shelves and a pale orange pony reading a book by the till.

“Welcome, sorry, but Miss Velvet is out, so we're out of stock. Please come back later.”

“I am the “Miss Velvet”! For Cadance's sake, what happened here?! Are you all right?!”

I finally came to my senses.

“Oh. Welcome back. Er, you've been out for a while, but ponies kept coming in, so I had to learn how to use this thing and sell out all the stock before the baked goods became baked bads.”

I pointed to the till beside me.

“Spoilt pun, I know. But jokes aside, I honestly don't think it was a good idea to hand over the entire bakery to some random filly you picked up some time ago without any warning, but I did my best to do things right.”

“Oh. Uh… To be honest, I just forgot about the bakery, ha-ha.”

Huh?..

“Wh-what?! How could you possibly forget about it?!”

“Well, uh… let's just say I've been a little busy.”

It doesn't answer anything!

“Anyway, why do you look so pale, Retite? And more importantly, what's wrong with those puns you're making now?!”

“Ugh… about that… Teadrop made me read the Basics of Magic while I'm forbidden to practise and waiting for you, as well as the Twilight's Magic Guide, which is full to the brim with stupid jokes! Oh, Tea was also the one who taught me how to use this thing.”

I pressed the button on the register and it opened with a ringing "tinn", then closed it back.

“Oh, I see, that must have been a painful experience for you.”

I nodded.

“But I still don't see how reading two such simple books could make you so badly. Have you been eating well?"

“Basic?! I've been reading them for a whole week and I still don't understand anything!”

I got on the verge of crying again.

“How come that the "redirect flow of your magic to three different nodes making them resonate counter-clockwise with each other to create a simple temporary light source" part is something basic?! What those nodes even are?!”

I mean, there was a part that explained what those are, but I didn't understand a word of it either.

“Well, these are.. Ah, whatever, according to your new study plans it doesn't matter for now .”

Huh?

“My study plans?”

“Yep!”

She took several piles of papers out of her saddlebags and put them on the nearby table.

“I wrote these in breaks from my… well, stuff I was doing, and got a bit carried away.”

“Yeah, just a bit…”

Seriously, how does all this stuff even fit in the saddlebags?

“Can I have a look?”

“Nuh-uh.”

As expected.

“So when do we start then?”

I'm so tired of reading at this point that I'll agree to anything, just get me off Twilight's puns.

“Somepony well versed in the ways of unicorn magic will be back in town tonight, so we will begin as soon as she arrives. But I should warn you that she can sometimes be a little… rough in the way she acts, so you'd better get some rest before she gets here.”

“Roger!”

So I ran upstairs to my room to rest.

. . .

A few hours later, Teadrop came to see me, but I couldn't go anywhere today, so we just had a little chit-chat, mostly wondering what this somepony will look like. We agreed that she totally should be wearing a cape and a stupidly big hat, although we couldn't figure out why.

We had to wait a couple of hours until Miss Velvet called me downstairs.

“Rettie, this is Ami! Oh wait, I think you two have met before, haven't you?”

Yes and this is definitely not somepony I'd ever expected to see again!

“G-glad to meet you?”

After seeing me, Ami gave Miss Velvet the “Are you serious?” look.

Miss Velvet replied with a “Yes.” one it seems.

And so my collection of heavy sighs in my address has grown by one.

“Glad to see you made it safely into town after failing to deal with a single tiny timberwolf.”

It doesn't sound like that!

“Oh! Good to see you again, Ami! I hope you enjoyed the tea last time!”

She nodded.

“I did, thank you.”

How come you two know each other?!?!

“Anyway, we don't have much time here, at least I don't, so what are you even capable of?”

She leaned over to take a closer look at me, and I tried my best to ignore the two scary horns that curved towards the back of her head and loomed over me.

“I can, uh, move things far away from me?”

Another staring dialogue between Miss Velvet and Ami ending with Ami's heavy sigh.

“Well, I shouldn't have expected much, after all Vel called me here to find out what element you kindred with.”

“Oh the element thing! I've seen it so many times in books, but no instructions on how to figure it out!”

“Because it's so natural that everypony knows it.”

Ouch.

“You're not the right pony to say that, Ami.”

Miss Velvet gave her a smug smile that Ami chose to ignore.

Or didn't dare answer?

“Let's start with your buttmark then, it has feathers, so it could be something to do with air. Try to create a little wind current.”

“Uh, how do I do that?”

“Don't think, just do it. If your magic is aligned with an element, it will easily resonate with it and at least something will happen.”

For a moment she seemed to remember something from her past.

But I didn't want to anger her by asking unimportant questions, so I closed my eyes and tried to… do something, I don't know, make air go shooo?

“No results it seems, next.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Miss Velvet throwing away one of her piles of papers.

“Huh, already?”

“Yes. As I said, I don't have much time. Now try to make the ground heave.”

Nope.

Another pile of papers got thrown away.

“Water.”

Nope.

Miss Velvet's smile began to fade.

“Fire.”

Ami picked up a dry stick from the ground and lit it with ease. So her element is fire, it seems.

Yep, I failed at that too.

As well as in attempts to create a dark or light orb.

“Ugh, maybe I'm useless after all, maybe arcane is the only element I can use?”

“Then lift that big rock over there with your telekinesis.”

Ami pointed to the huge mossy rock behind the trees.

No way I can lift that!

I had to try anyway.

“See, not that either.”

“Does that mean I'm completely useless?!”

“Most likely, yes.”

Miss Velvet was right about Ami being “a bit” harsh.

“...but that depends on what you mean by “useless”. Even somepony with magic as stupid as mine can be terrifying to those whose element is supposed to be superior.”

“Huh? Don't you have a fire element? And what do you mean by terrifying?”

She grinned at me, that alone is terrifying enough if you ask me.

A moment later, a tiny green flame flew off her horns towards one of the big trees a bit away from us, leaving a little scorch mark on the tree.

“Uh, what's that?”

“Oh, just you wait.” Said Miss Velvet.

A few seconds later that big tree suddenly fell. Into the woods and not on us or any nearby houses, thankfully.

“Wha-”

Wasn't that just a tiny little flame?! Why would you even call THAT stupid?!

I returned my astonished gaze to Ami.

“No, I won't explain how it works, it will take several hours at the very least.”

“Think of it as her marking the spot and telling the magic around to gather and cut down this tree.”

“That's definitely a very rough and oversimplified way to describe it, Vel. Anyway, back to you…”

“Rettie.”

“Yeah, Rets, have you ever noticed something weird about the way you use your magic? Or maybe some areas you were interested in?”

Something weird or interesting?..

“Well, actually…”

Suddenly I was interrupted by Teadrop's voice.

“Oh, maybe the illusions? You have a whole book about them! And you told me you read it several times by yourself! It'd be cool if you could do all those cool magic tricks with stuff disappearing and such!”

“I couldn't even make a simple light orb though.”

“Oh…”

“It's a light element spell, but she's right, it would work with illusions too, just wrose. Anything else?”

Anything else? Well, actually….

I quickly told her about my great-grandpa's advice about imagining things, that I had used that trick a few times before.

“A magic diary? Was that popular back in the day or something?.. Ah, whatever, your element could be imagination or something like that then.”

“What? How can THAT be an element?!”

“Well, text is an element for some reason too, and you've just seen what it's capable of. I mean, even friendship is an element. These are just some of the "special ones", no more and no less. Some specials are extremely powerful, and some you will have to… improvise to make them at least somewhat useful. Either way you will have to get used to dealing with that kind of stuff.”

I looked at the fallen tree.

“Don't tell me it was-”

“Yep, just a text basically.”

“That's definitely a very rough and oversimplified way to describe it, Ami, mmm?”

Once again Ami did her best to ignore Miss Velvet's banter.

“You mentioned the orb of light earlier, try to imagine it here.”

“Isn’t that stupid?”

“You've seen what "stupid" can do, so shut and just do it already.”

Well, it's supposed to look like a shiny white orb, floating above my horn right?

“You have to use your magic, you know.”

I'm not that stupid, okay?!

Apart from the fact that I didn't think about it.

I tried to direct my magic to where I imagined that orb at. This time without trying to create anything.

“Huh?”

“It works! It works! Amazing, Rettie!” Teadrop's shout nearly ripped my ears off.

“Yup, apart from the fact that it doesn't give off any light and basically has no practical use. Here you go Vel, can I go now?”

The orb was hard to hold, so I broke the spell... if you could call it that, of course.

I looked at Miss Velvet.

All her papers were tossed around and she definitely had mixed feelings about me finally finding an element.

I have mixed feelings about it too, so I can relate.

Only Tea seemed happy about it.

“Do you have any experience with this imaginary kind of magic by any chance?”

“Nope.”

“So no tips for her?”

“Combine two and more illusions, but that's kinda obviou- ah, right… Well, you've got the idea.”

Why do I feel insulted again?!

“Then yes, it was the last one so you can go now.”

“Finally!”

With that she just flew away, without any goodbyes. Rude.

But I have to give it to her, without her help I'd never have thought that such an element existed.

. . .

Me and Teadrop watched Miss Velvet throwing all her notes into the bakery oven.

“Wait wait wait, aren't those my study plans?!”

“They were based on the elements you might have been kindred to, but they all useless now”

“Oh…”

Yeah, she definitely wasn't in a great mood.

“Uh, well, isn't it still great that Rettie found something special?” Teadrop tried to calm Miss Velvet.

“It is, but I spent a whole week writing it! Day and night! And they all turned out to be useless!”

Ouch…

“Well, at least it must have been a good experience for you!” Tea kept trying to comfort Miss Velvet a little.

“Yes, it was, but I can't use any of that experience in Rettie's case!”

“Yeah, it blows when all your efforts go to waste.”

Was it just me, or did her coat get a little darker for a moment? Did I say something weird?

“Yeah, blows, right. I just need to blow off some steam. The bakery is on you again for a few days, Retite.”

“Wha-”

And with that she's already disappeared behind the doors.

“But I don't even have any baked goods left to sell!”

“Well, at least you can imagine them now, you know! Pff-t”

Great, now even Tea is making fun of me.

“That means you won't get any for a few days either!”

“Nooo! Not the sweets! Miss Velvet, come back, please!”

“Anyway, now that everypony is left and there's only two of us…”

Teadrop suddenly tensed up.

“W-wait Rettie, t-this is too sudden, aren't you rushing things a bit?!”

“...do you have any idea what's the difference between illusion and imaginary types of magic?”

“Huh?” We both sighed in surprise.

“A-ah, you're talking about magic, right, right.”

Wasn't that what we were talking about?

“Yeah, Miss Velvet and Ami have both run away and I've got no one else to ask.”

Teadrop sighed in relief and… disappointment?

“Well, I don't know much about imaginary types, in fact I've never even heard of this one before, but I could try to explain how the illusion one relates to others.”

“I'm all ears!”

“Well, imagine an orb of fire… not with your magic!”

“Oh, yeah, sorry, my bad.”

“You're definitely getting used to things too quickly… Anyway, a fire orb would light up the area a bit, but its main purpose is to burn things.”

“Makes sense for a fire element spell.”

Teadrop nodded.

“Then there's a light orb, it lights up the area as brightly as you can cast it, but even if it doesn't set anything on fire, it would still be quite warm… well, at least from what I've heard.”

“I see.”

“And then there's an illusory orb, it doesn't matter if it's a light or a fire one. It would still illuminate a small area, but not as brightly or as far as the real orb, nor would it give off any heat, because it's just an illusion, not the real object. For example, if someone would send you into exile to an illusory sun, you would be fine!”

“Being in exile definitely doesn't sound like something that would be “fine”!”

“Ha-ha, right, but you get the point, right?”

“I think I do. So the main thing I should focus on from now on is…”

“Finding out how it works and what it can do! Which means...”

“More practice?”

She gave me a warm smile.

“More practice.”

It really never ends, does it?

Comments

[ProgAltRocker]

Looks like Rettie is getting used to her magic!