Cradle of Dreams

by AterHut

Chapter Five — Some Good Progress

After the “stars incident” and good night of sleep I’ve spent the next few days practising that "imagination" trick I've learned.

Since I lost way too much of my magic during the first days of cleaning (especially on that damn book), I’d have to take a little break from cleaning to recover anyways.

“Can I even call it a break if I was learning during it?..”

Seems like all that stress rewarded me with a habit of rambling and complaining about everything.

“Is that what older ponies call “growing up” ?”

I really hope not.

I let out a heavy sigh.

Thankfully, after practising in the library, I didn't have to use this trick over and over again.

Rather, I had to think about ways of using it and try out only ideas that were looking promising.

Which allowed me to both - practise and recover at the same time.

I felt like an incredibly smart pony at that moment. Now cleaning shouldn’t be a problem.

But…

I don’t want to work at all! I deserve an actual rest!

But it's the 7th day out of 14 that I have to clear the library! If I take even one more day off then I simply won’t be able to finish it in time!

That trick will save me a couple of days but it also took them to learn it!

And besides the time, it took a lot of effort too! Which left me without any motivation to keep working!

Usually I’d just distract myself with something else so that the current task wouldn’t discourage me so much.

But I don’t have any motivation or time for that either!

So I came up with the best solution I could find.

I just lay on the grass in front of the library, staring at the sunny sky.

“...”

Depressive lying on your back doesn’t work well when the sun shines directly into your eyes.

“Noted.”

Reconsidering my own decisions, I’ve moved into the shadows.

No more sun trying to burn out my eyes.

“Much better.”

Now… What should I do?

I don’t want to think, but my brain just can't seem to let me suffer in silence even for a little.

After fighting my own thoughts for a little I’ve finally given up and let them flow.

But it seems like they gave up too, leaving me with a ringing silence in my head.

Now I’ve lost motivation even to losing motivation. Amazing.

“Dang it.”

I stood up and, after taking a lap around the library, finally entered it to at least give it a look. And to be honest…

“It… doesn’t look that bad now?”

I mean, it still looks awful. There was a ton (most likely literally) of dust and cobweb left, but it didn’t look as bad as the first day.

Especially since I no longer have to wear a mask to be able to breathe here!

I have a clean table and books don’t look that dusty anymore.

“Thankfully, I don’t have to restore them or something like that.”

At least I hope so.

And last but not least, my telekinesis improved a lot compared to the time I’ve spent!

“So… I just have to clean a couple more tables, chairs, windowsills…”

It'll take me a day, but it shouldn't be a hassle.

“Windows…”

Uhh… Those are quite huge, but I can manage to do it in one day with my increased range?

“Few bookshelves…”

Harder task, but it will take only a day or two, considering that I’ll have to take books off them first.

Well, and maybe wipe them once again, just to be sure.

“Chandeliers…”

Come to think of it, those would be nearly impossible for me to clean with my short-ranged telekinesis before!

I’ve once again thanked my great-grandpa’s notes.

“And, lastly, wipe the floor.”

Piece of cake, compared to the rest.

In total…

“Six days?!”

That leaves me a whole two spare days!

I thought I’m short on time!

“Hold up.”

Something is definitely wrong here.

Why would my parents have to spend two whole weeks here then?!

“Did they just scare me off too, so I wouldn’t slack?!”

Black’s supervision would be more than enough for that!

“Maybe they didn’t know about Mr Waver's order?”

That… may be true.

And may not!

“Ugh…”

Guessing won’t help me here.

“I think I’ll just ask them about that when I finish…”

Feeling a little frustrated, I started cleaning out the bookshelves.

For some reason now I was sure that that’s how growing up feels like.

“Welcome to adult life, me?”

. . .

In less than ten minutes I got extremely bored and wasn’t able to keep cleaning.

Welcome out of adult life, me.

"I definitely need something to distract myself or I'll go crazy."

But all I’ve got around is books!

Of course, I could read my great-grandpa notes, but then I’d won’t have any magic left for cleaning itself.

"Well, then I have no choice but to read other books?"

I tried to recall all the books I saw last time I checked the library, in order to find something interesting.

I tried to remember all the books I saw the last time I went through the library to find something interesting.

“Food section, garden section, myths section… Why there’s no magic section?!”

I got angry again at the fact that that library had no magic books in here for some reason.

“Hold up a second, magic… tricks!”

I believe I saw a little section with tricks-related books!

It was somewhere around here!

It’s literally only five books, but it’s better than nothing.

“100 Best Tips And Tricks For Housewives.”

Thank you, but I already found out how to clean this place. But I definitely should read it later.

“One Trick That Will Help You Memorise Anything!”

Sounds useful, but boring. Maybe later.

“Top 10 Tricks On How To Survive An Encounter With Timberwolves.”

Nope, won’t ever need that.

“Best Tricks For Beginner Illusionists!”

Illusions sound fun! But I’d prefer something that won’t make me spend my magic right now.

"A Thousand Tips for Making Friends!"

Princess Twilight’s book. One of many books by her authorship, to be precise.

“Quite recent one, probably got here right before that library got closed.”

It was definitely hardly ever used. No wonder. Who in the world would read such thick books just to make some friends?!

. . .

Finding nothing I could read right now, I went back to cleaning.

But this time I started with a more difficult task to keep my interest - the chandeliers.

“About four metres away if I try to reach them from here. Nope.”

I moved two tables, put one on top of the other, and after checking the stability of this construction, I climbed onto them.

Thankfully Black went away on Mrs Wavers task to the nearby city, so there won’t be anyone to scare me, so risk of falling down is way lower than it could be.

Fortunately, Black is away on an assignment for Mrs Wavers in the next town, so there’s no pony to scare me. So the risk of falling is much lower than it might have been.

“About Two metres away, maybe two and a half.”

It's still much farther than I'd prefer, but I don't want to move the tables to win myself a few more centimetres.

“Alright Rettie. Focus and Imagine, just as before.”

The rag easily reached the chandeliers. Success! Now I just need to wipe all the dust and web off it.

“Just don’t press too hard, take it easy...”

Surprisingly, it actually was a lot easier to control than last time.

I wiped all the dust and fixed all the loose parts in under one hour.

“Huh?”

Looking at the time I’ve spent using telekinesis on such a long (for me) range simply stunned me.

Even with all those breaks I’ve taken, using it for such a long time and finishing cleaning one of the chandeliers made me very happy!

Probably that’s what those smart books called a “flow state”.

“Let’s go!”

I wanted to jump for joy, but I remembered that I was still standing on two tables.

“Well, maybe next time, now onto the next chandelier!”

. . .

I finished cleaning the last chandelier just as the clock was ringing, announcing dinner time.

This time I was standing on solid ground, so there was nothing to restrict me from jumping around for joy.

“Bad mood - Zero, Rettie - One!”

Also one task off the list!

Come to think about this..

“That’s a lot of progress compared to the first days.”

It’s not like I was able to work that freely because with all that dust hanging in the air, but still!

“Alright! Now I’m sure that I will finish it all in no time!”

I was shining with motivation!

“But dinner first.”

But the motivation to eat something was even greater.

Since I’ve got some spare time - I took with me this “Top Best Tricks For Beginner Illusionists!” book.

I closed the library for today and finally ate at home. Then successfully wasted my resting time reading, before falling asleep.

. . .

The next day I started in high spirits! Every task felt so easy, that I even was able to read while wiping dust off books and bookshelves!

Thankfully, it wasn’t any hard and, after ten or so attempts, I was able to wipe dust without even looking there!

I still was dropping books on the floor from time to time, but I saw no problem with that.

To be honest, multitasking wasn’t helping much to understand and remember what I was reading.

So it didn't feel like I learned anything new at all. But it helped a lot to not die out of boredom and was a nice practice too!

“I’m practising a lot lately, huh?”

I wish there were mirrors in the library so I could flex in front of them like some ponies do in books and movies.

“How do you even flex with magic? Sparkling brighther?”

Anyways. Good news is that I’ve cleaned one-third of the bookshelves today!

“That’s almost half worse than I expected but hey, I was reading and I still have spare time!”

I do, right?

“Let’s see… I have six days left. Two days for books and bookshelves, one for tables and other small stuff, one for windows and one for the floor. Five days total. One spare day left.”

That’s one less than what I counted yesterday.

“Uhh… Spare day is a spare day, right?”

I’m not lazy, I’m just… Uh, economy my magic? Right?

Doesn’t sound too convincing. Especially when I’m spending magic to hold the book.

*sigh*

“I should focus more, don’t I?”

Goodbye high spirits, hope to see you again!

I wrinkled my snout from dissatisfaction.

“I’ll focus more starting from tomorrow, for sure.”

. . .

The next day I continued reading an illusions book while cleaning.

And the day after too.

I still don’t understand a thing, but it's just written in such an interesting way that I simply can’t stop reading it.

Even if I promised myself to stop. Twice.

Good news is that I still somehow managed to finish cleaning bookshelves at midday.

Which leaves me four and a half days to clean the rest, and if my previous calculations were correct it will take three days, leaving me a spare day and a half!

But…

“It feels like I’ve almost spent all of my magic already.”

I knew it wasn’t a good idea to use my telekinesis to hold a book in front of me while I was cleaning.

But even so, I ran out of magic way faster than I expected.

“Not good.”

If you think about it, long-range magic requires more magic. It makes sense, but I didn't even think about it until now.

Conclusion: I need to think sometimes.

Ugh…

"Okay. I can still go and get some rest today. That will allow me to recover enough magic to clear the tables tomorrow. It won't take much magic since the items are close. It will give me even more time to recover before I start cleaning the windows, which will take a lot of magic."

Have no clue what I just said, but it sounds like a plan.

“Just need to restrict myself from reading until I finish cleaning and I’ll be fine.”

With a plan ready, I went home and spent the rest of the day reading.

“No magic used, so it won’t hurt, right?..”

Well, maybe only to my self-discipline.

. . .

I had to leave an illusions book at home to be sure that I’ll focus on work today.

“Focus Rettie. Tables, chairs, windowsills and other small furniture. It isn’t hard. Let’s just finish with that quickly.”

Also I shouldn’t forget to use telekinesis as close as possible to save as much magic as I can.

I took a deep breath and got to work.

Surprisingly, I actually focused quite fast. Focused a little too much, I’d say.

It was only midday when I finished all of today's tasks.

As well as spent almost all of my magic. Again.

“Dang it.”

There are three and a half days left, and it will only take me about two of those days to finish cleaning up.

But both of them will require me to use quite a lot of magic, which I’m short on.

Not like wiping the floor will take a lot of it, but that day I’ll also have to make sure that everything is clean as well as take out the trash and put away the tools and leave some magic to not faint.

“I’ve heard that blueberries help you to restore your magic faster…”

But I think it works in the long term and won’t help me much here. I would have had to eat them from the moment I got here for them to have any effect.

“Well, good rest it is then.”

I don’t have much of a choice at the moment anyways.

Comments

[ProgAltRocker]

Rettie seems to be improving her magic quite well. Might need to hold off on the focus on time schedules and extra time to complete the task though