full bloom moon
I have have traversed the infinitesimal dimensions of ba‘ale shem, seen into the infinite and lived and more stories have been told of me then I can remember. My name is Nicolas Flamel and I am a Wizard and an immortal. My hobbies include astroplaning, dining with the fae and My Little Pony. This is the tail of how I realized my obsession. It's really not that hard to imagine that a wizened old wizard like myself would yearn for a world less boring then the one you no doubt are reading this from. So please allow me tell you the story of my travels in the land of Equestria.
I was in my workshop in Manhattan, doing wizard-y things as one might often do when they are trying to open a portal to another dimension. In fact this night was the summer sun solstice and it was very important that I cast this spell when the moon is full. I had specifically planted some Queen-of-the-Night a few years back for this exact spell and they had finally decided to bloom on the correct night. Being the fickle plant they are, they only bloomed one day a year and not always the same day of the year.
I sat there in my dusty old chair, I watched the hill I had planted the cactus on years ago glowing in the moonlight. I pulled out my stopwatch and rechecked my calculations. Everything was going exactly according to plan. I grabbed my pack of magical supplies and stuffed a few food items in it. I picked up my magic wand as I exited the door. I had to make a run to get to the top of the hill in time. And though I was immortal, being nearly seven hundred years old still plays hell with your body.
By the time I made it to the top of the hill I was out of breath but the air was scented with the aroma of hundreds of blooming flowers. Now was the time. I opened my bag and grasped a bottle of unicorn tears. How did I obtain these you may ask? well it was a very very long time ago and suffice it to say many sad unicorns where involved in acquiring it. Anyways I had managed to use only a few drops in the many years I had, had them, but tonight sadly; I would have to use the whole bottle. One does not simply open the doors to oblivion without shedding a few tears. I only hoped the spell worked or I would have to find ‘other’ methods of getting the doors to open. methods not unlike how a thief might break a door down; quite messy I assure you.
I stepped into the center of the grove, at the very top of the hill, I carefully poured the contents of the bottle onto the ground creating the shape needed to open the correct door. the shape was revealed to me over the course of several psychedelic drug induced sooth saying sessions. 'Magic was not all books and spells after all.'
As I poured the tears around me in a circle to complete the image I had recalled, my excitement grew; the normally silver liquid began resonating with an eerie purple glow. ‘a good sign’.
I raised my wand to the moon and began the chant “hom,killell shemtellick, hockmosta, chemtellick or sonitica” I repeated the chant over and over. slowly a golden trail of ‘dust’ began to spill from my wand, I could feel the magic flowing from my spirit through the wand. It had been many years since I had last cast a spell this tiring but I pushed on, determined to finish the spell before the moon fell much further and my chance lost.
Finally the magic spilling out of my wand touched with the glowing purple circle around me and a bright flash blinded me. I fell to the ground exhausted. Slowly my vision returned and I opened my eyes. Before me lay a golden path leading into the sky. It had worked! I quickly picked my things up and began to follow the path.
Sometimes the way magic works is not exactly the way you think it will and even 600 years later magic still managed to surprise me and this was one of those times. for I had expected some kind of astral door or even a mystical portal like I has seen in those mine craft games I played from time to time, but this . . .
The path lead to a cliff edge. Hesitantly I stepped out onto presumably open air. I let a breath out that I had not realized I had been holding. I was relived when my foot met a solid surface. I never did like using flight magic, it was always so exhausting.
I walked a few feet out into the air and then looked back the way I came. But all I saw was as if through a fogged glass, nothing but blurry shapes vaguely reminiscent of a hill with green on it.
The world began to spin, I felt like I was both falling and flying, I felt like I was in a hundred places at once and nowhere at once. I closed my eyes or at least I think I had closed my eyes but the plains of oblivion where devoid of human understanding. I heard a scream as if a man in agony, then I realized is was my own voice, a chill ran up my spine. The world went from million colors to the suddenness of darkness.
Slowly the world . . or at least a world of some familiarity came creeping back into me. I could feel the distinct sense of wind rushing across my skin, the coldness of it. I felt the skin on my eyelids, I been closing my eyes after all and so I opened them.
I was falling! I took a moment to look at the sky around me. it was night and a beautiful moon shone in the sky much bigger then I remembered.
I took note that none of the constellations where anything I had remembered seeing. But that would have to wait, I was falling after all and being that the occupation of knowledge in a human body required a working brain I decided that it was more important to keep my skull from getting crushed into the rapidly approaching ground or any other part of my body for that matter.
I reached behind me and flipped my cape away from my face and held it down with one hand while my other reached into my backpack. I felt around and managed to take hold of some bed slippers. Yes you heard me; slippers. Very important slippers to.
I slipped them on my feet. and rather suddenly I was flipping around and now falling head first. I bent myself up and managed to get the center of my mass over my feet and righted myself. I must have looked like a drunk trying to keep balanced as the enchanted slippers did there best to throw themselves out from under me.
Gradually my descent slowed and it became easier to stand. I looked down and saw what looked like the tops of trees. I braced myself as the first branch slapped me in the face, and then the second , I put my hand over my face to shield it from the worst of the pain and finally I had punched through the canopy and landed on my behind on the ground. I looked up into the trees I had just come through, the darkness surrounding me was quite a contrast from the golden-moon light sky I had just fallen from.
So it was I had entered the world of colorful talking equines. I was excited to say the least, but more than that. This was my chance to explore a new world. Not some plane of oblivion filled with demons and demigods, not some far off world of elves and dwarves. But something completely new. I felt like a kid again.
I stood up, my back cracked loudly ‘ow!’I yelled in pain. well . . I felt like a kid in spirit at least.
I looked around and began to wonder if there was a way I could find a town. There had to be one somewhere if it was anything like the show I so dearly loved. I shrugged and pulled my wand out of my breast pocket. I looked around and saw a small puddle of water near the spot I had fallen to. I spoke a spell I had cast many times. it was a low level scrying spell. I placed the tip of my wand into the murky water and watched as an image appeared of a small hut of some kind with smoke coming from a hole in the top of a thatched roof. There were strange designs all over the hut and many different colored mask of various shapes and sizes.
Now the tricky part. I pictured the hut I had seen in my minds eye. I lifted my magic wand to my forehead and then quickly cast my thoughts into it and then flicked my wand at the ground. but nothing happened. So then I cast it again. . .still nothing. Now I was miffed completely. Either this world was playing tricks with my magic or someone was blocking my spell. So I went back to the water and cast the scrying spell again but this time nothing happened . .
‘Now that is interesting’ I thought to myself. I've only been here for a half an hour and already I’ve revealed my presence to some kind of mage or wizard. really it could be anything with even a little magical talent. I kicked the dirt in frustration. I suppose I could cast another scrying spell but the further I look the harder it will be to cast it. It would be much easier if I could just talk to this wizard or whatever it was I had frightened.
Finally I decided I would try to cast the spell again. after all I was a motherfucking six-hundred year old immortal wizard and I’ll be damn if some upstart is going to out magic me.
I rolled up my sleeves and shook my arms out a few times, I even ran in place a few times just to get the blood flowing. “ok, ok I can do this”
I imagined the hut in my minds eye again. I recalled every detail of it it. from the way the smoke wafted and curled through the tiny hole in the roof, to the individual shades of green of the leaves around the hut.
Usually when I cast this spell it required little magical force but this time I dug deep into my reservoir of magical within me, I took a deep breath, I could feel the opposing magical force trying to block the flow of magic but I kept concentrating, ignoring the presence of it while still keeping the image of the hut in my head.
The longer I held onto the magic the harder it was becoming to concentrate. Sweet began to bead on my forehead. I scrunched up the skin on my forehead and forced even more magic into the spell, I could feel the opposing spell cracking. I let out a short “hy-ya” and let the full force of my magic out with a quick flick of my arm. there was a loud crack as magic shot out of my wand and into the ground. The feeling of magical release was not unlike letting a bow string fly after holding it back for two long.
I looked down at the small glowing orb at my feet. it would lead me to this wizard or whatever it was that lived in the hut. “HA!! take that” I said triumphantly.
I walked off in the direction the orb was pointing; practically skipping all the way.