Day 0: The Spell
A loud crash sounded from my library, and I slammed my quill down on my desk with a groan. “Dash! I told you not to screw around in the library! It’s not a playroom!” I pushed back from my desk with a sigh, and in just a minute I was standing at the entrance to the library, looking on in a mix of horror and amusement as Dash tried to dig herself out of the large pile of books that she’d somehow managed to knock over. My horror faded quickly, though, as I realized that she had only knocked the books off of a single section of shelving, rather than several. “By the Creator, Dash, how many times have I told you not to... Oh. Pinkie.” The aforementioned pink haired girl bounded over the pile of books, her head turning to and fro as she looked at the library.
“No matter how many times I come in here, it’s always amazing, Icarus.” Pinkie brought her gaze to me. “And you’ve read everything that’s in here?”
I began approaching Dash, a smile on my face. “Very nearly. Although most of the technical manuals, much of the first floor, is so outdated that I only leaf through them when I’m working on a relevant project.” I started excavating Dash from the large pile of tomes, her own efforts speeding up the process. “This shelf, though, is the unsorted section. All the books that I gather over the course of a year go here, and then I sort them during my annual book-sort-a-thon.”
Dash finally freed herself, and looked at the massive collection in awe. “These are just the books you’ve gotten since last year?”
I shrugged, and started picking some up. “Yeah. Most are, like I said, technical manuals. I’ve got some arrangements with various people, and they send me manuals for the various products that they make.” I looked at the cover of one of the manuals. “Quasi-Inductive Applications of Faraday’s Law to Analogous Meta-Magical Metals: Volume III; Revision VI. Wow. That’s a mouthful. Hell, I don’t even remember getting the first two volumes.” Dash and Pinkie just looked at me, confusion apparent on their faces. “Um... How magic affects specially shaped pieces of metal. That’s the closest I can come without just saying, ‘Magic and Metal.’”
Dash rolled her eyes, and started helping me to put books back onto the shelf. “Icarus, you need to get out more.”
“I just went on a vacation not too long ago, in case you forgot. I mean, you were there, and all...” I trailed off as I noticed the blush on both Dash’s, and Pinkie’s cheeks. “See, I get out plenty. And you weren’t complaining last night, Dash.”
“You be quiet, Icarus!” Dash’s cheeks flushed an even darker shade of crimson at those words, and I just chuckled as I continued placing books back on the shelf, barely noting their order or titles. After just over an hour we had finally replaced all the books, and I took a seat on one of the several plush armchairs I had around my library. Pinkie plopped herself down on my lap, and Dash seated herself on one of the arms, leaning against me and letting out a content sigh.
“Five minutes. That’s what I give it before something happens.”
Dash let out a snort. “You’re always so optimistic. Three, and that’s being generous.”
“Someone’s actually at the door, now. They’re going to knock right now.” Pinkie’s words were punctuated by the sound of knocking, and she let out a laugh. “It’s Lyra, though, so maybe we don’t have to leave just yet. Maybe we can take a trip to the bedroom...”
I rolled my eyes as I gently lifted Pinkie off me. “It’s not even noon, Pinkie. Let’s save that for tonight.” She let out a loud groan, and I only shook my head as I started for the front door. Opening it revealed Lyra, and she leaned in for a quick kiss before inviting herself inside. “Morning, Lyra. What brings you by? Not that you need a reason, mind you. Seeing as how Pinkie and Dash have already torn me from my work, it’s not like you’re interrupting anything.”
Lyra giggled as she led the way towards the library. “Twilight actually asked me to come by, and get you. Dash and Pinkie can come too, really. She wants to show us a new spell that she’s been working on. Supposed to be something really impressive, too.” We entered the library as Lyra finished, and the two girls already there smiled at Lyra as she walked in.
They all shared some quick hugs, and whispers before I cleared my throat. “So, now that you’ve gotten some gossip done, shall we head to Twilight’s? She wants me, and I see no reason to exclude any of you.”
“She wants you?” Dash wiggled her eyebrows, and I felt my cheeks grow warm. “I didn’t know it was quite that time of the year just yet.”
“By the Creator, Dash, you are just the funniest pegasus I know.”
“And don’t you forget it.” She, and the others walked over to me, and shortly after that we were heading across Ponyville towards the library.
“So, Lyra, you know anything about the spell Twilight wants to showcase? I mean, break it down. I don’t know spell names, but I know some effects that can be produced.”
“It’s actually a remarkably advanced spell. Even for her.” She delved, quickly, into some explanation about various levels of spells at the request of Pinkie, and I just listened as they spoke. I was already well versed in the ranking system used for spells, but I still picked up a few things as I listened to Lyra go into some depth. “Anyway, Icarus, the spell utilizes magic in order to transform the targeted object into another object. The best results are had with organics, though. It doesn’t seem to work on rocks, from what Twilight has said.”
“Transformations? I thought that kind of magic was forbidden? Too dangerous for regular use, or some such logic.”
“Normally, yes. But this kind of spell has a short lifetime before the creature, or object, reverts back to its previous state. More, or less, magic will lengthen or shorten the change time, though.” We entered the marketplace, and the many people of the town were all too happy to try and sell us their various goods.
“Icarus! Hey!” I turned to search for the person calling my name, and after just a moment I was approached by Berry Punch. “Hi, Icarus, girls. I was hoping that you’d come out today.” I raised an eyebrow, and she let out a laugh. “You may be changing, since your vacation, but you’re still a bit of a recluse. Anyway, I’m having some trouble with one of my beer taps, and I was hoping that you could come by today, and take a look at it.”
“Sure thing, Berry. I’m heading over to Twi’s place, now, for some magical demonstration, but after that I suppose that I can swing by. I don’t have any tools with me, though, so I don’t know if I’ll actually be able to do any repair work. Let’s call it a free inspection?”
Berry smiled, and gave me a nod. “Great. I’ll be at the bar. Just give a knock on the door, if I forget to unlock it.”
“Alrighty then, Berry, I’ll see you in a couple hours, at most.” She nodded, and continued walking through the market. With that done, the girls and I resumed our walk, and Pinkie quickly filled our group silence with the kind of chatter only she could think up. Lyra, Dash, and I quickly got involved in her ramblings, and as a group we thoroughly enjoyed our walk through the market, and shortly after that we reached the library. I gave a trio of quick knocks on the door, before I opened it, and went in.
The main room of the library was, as usual, crammed full of countless tomes, and I let out a small sigh, knowing that Spike was going to be quite busy come the weekend. “Twi! I’m here!” I heard Twilight answer me from somewhere else in the building, so I decided to wait for her to come to us, knowing that she’d probably want to talk to Spike about running the library while she was busy.
The very dragon I’d just thought about staggered down the stairs, his cheeks flushed wildly, his eyes locking onto me. “Oh, Icarus... It’s just you.” I raised an eyebrow, but the dragon quickly looked away from me, up the stairs from whence he had emerged. “Come on, Sweetie.” His voice was a comically loud whisper, and I crossed my arms as I looked at the girls beside me, each of whom had a small blush on their cheeks. I let out a soft chuckle as a slightly disheveled looking unicorn followed Spike down the stairs, her clothing showing all signs of having been rapidly put on in the last few moments.
I felt a hand on my shoulder. “They get to have fun this early, Icarus.”
“They’re still young and impressionable, Pinkie. We have to set an example.”
Lyra let out a laugh, and I glared at her. “Man, Icarus, for a moment there I almost took you seriously.” Dash and Pinkie joined Lyra’s laughter, and I just took a few steps away from them, busying myself with a small stack of books.
“Icarus, girls, could you, um, not mention this to Twilight... She still t--”
“Not mention what, Spike?” I looked at Twilight as she entered the room, her brow furrowed as she looked from Spike to Sweetie Belle, and back again. “Well? What is it that you don’t want them to mention to me?” She began approaching the young pair. “Perhaps the fact that you’re deliberately shirking your library responsibilities? Or, maybe, the fact that Sweetie Belle clearly can’t put on her clothing right? Which is it, Spike? Or is there some other option that I haven’t mentioned?” The dragon began several different sentences before he looked at the unicorn to his side. Without a word between them, the unicorn snatched Spike’s hand, and the pair disappeared in a flash of light. Twilight pinched the bridge of her nose with one hand while she started coming over towards the set of us who had just arrived. “I know what he’s up to, and I don’t want to stop it, but I’d love it if he didn’t do it while the library is supposed to be open.”
“Young love?” I offered a shrug. “I’m pretty sure that you and I would’ve been much the same if we hadn’t done our own courtship dance on Firefly Island.” I let a small smile come to my face. “Not that our courtship was even close to traditional.”
Twilight gave me a quick peck on the lips, and then she gave a hug to each of the girls. “I wouldn’t change a thing that we did, Icarus.” She motioned for all of us to follow. “Now, let’s go. I’ve got a spell to show all of you, and I’ll be needing a volunteer for it.” I looked at Lyra for a moment, and she gave me a wan smile coupled with a shrug. A few moments later, and we stepped into Twilight’s study, and the unicorn was already setting out several cages, each with one of Fluttershy’s various woodland critters inside. Then, beside the final cage, she placed a rather sizable rock.
“That, Twilight, is a big piece of schist.”
She rolled her eyes. “Very good, Icarus. I’m happy to hear that your studies of geology are up to date.” She made a few final adjustments, and then she stepped back from the lineup, and she motioned for the rest of us to take places behind her, on several seats that she had ready. “Now, general transformation magic utilizes raw power and energy to transform an object from one state to another, often resulting in a low efficiency. Not only that, but the object, or creature, is infused with a large amount of unstable magic, leading to chaotic long term effects.” Twilight continued as she levitated several ornate tomes towards me. “Discord’s magic, for example, relies heavily upon transformations, and we all see the results of his efforts.”
I snatched the tomes from the air, quickly jumping to the page where Twilight had put in bookmarks. “But you’ve done transformation magic before, Twi.” I looked up at her as I spoke. “Nothing quite on the same scale as Discord, but you’ve changed stuff.”
“Yes. I have. But I did so with a large amount of practice before hand, and a huge level of magical concentration. I’ve also tried to stick with only small scale changes.” The unicorn adjusted a few of the cages, before coming towards where I sat. “If you’ll look at the fourth note I made on that page, it gives a quick outline for the specifics of the spell, and how it avoids the chaotic magic naturally prone to transformation magic.” I did as she requested, but the practical applications of what she outlined was well beyond my capabilities, so I handed the tome to Lyra, thinking that she’d get a better idea than I would. “So, without further ado, I’d like to give you the first demonstration of this spell. Pinkie, in this first cage we have a mouse. Ordinary, and plain. Pick some other creature that you’d like to see it become.”
The pink haired girl looked at the mouse for a moment before she looked at Twilight. “A frog.” Pinkie stood up, and moved next to the cage, her eyes focused on the mouse. “Turn it into a frog.” Twilight gave a quick nod, and then her horn began to glow. Softly, at first, but then it began to pulse softly, growing in brightness with each pulse.
Lyra mumbled something to my side, and I glanced at her. As I did so, a bright flash filled the room, and when I looked back to where the cage was, I saw a frog staring back at us, its eyes wide and roaming the room. Its gaze seemed to linger on each of us for a moment, before losing focus, and drifting to look at anything and everything. It only lasted a few seconds before the frog glowed, much like Twilight’s horn, and the frog vanished, the mouse taking its place. Several more transformations took place until Twilight reached the rock, her smile, which had slowly grown, vanishing. “And, here, we come to the problem. The spell indicates that it only works on living creatures, and no amount of modification seems to be able to get the spell to work on this rock.”
As a quick demonstration, she performed the spell on the rock, her disappointment apparent at the stubborn nature of the schist. I felt a small smile tug at my lips, and I stood up, quickly moving to the rock, and prodding it with a finger. “It’s still a piece of schist, Twi. You... You didn’t change schist! I guess you could say that spell is a piece of schist! You know what they say, Twi, schist happens!” I couldn’t keep going as my laughter forced me to double over, and I lost all ability to reason or speak for several long minutes. When I finally recovered I found myself looking at a rather distraught unicorn. The others were all still in their seats, and I realized, belatedly, that I had been the only one laughing. “Aw, come on, Twi. It’s fine. The spell itself says that it doesn’t work on inanimate objects.”
“I know, but I was just hoping...” She trailed off slowly, her eyes closing. “It’s just that Princess Celestia has been talking to me, some, about some great project that she’s going to be giving me sometime soon. A spell that I’ll have to work on. I want to be ready for it when she does decide to send it to me.”
“You’ll do wonderfully, Twilight.” I recovered enough to move, and I stepped up to Twilight, pulling her into a big hug. “This is just like any other problem. Sometimes, you have to take it apart, and look at each piece separate from the others.” I broke the hug, and Twilight gave me a soft smile.
“Yeah, Twi, it’s not that big of a deal. Even I mess up some of the stunts I try to do the first couple of times.” Dash leapt up beside Twilight, throwing an arm around her shoulders. “It’s not always easy to know that you’ve got to try again, and practice more, but it’s worth it in the end. I mean, awesomeness like mine comes naturally, but sometimes even I have to work at it.”
“Thanks, Dash. I was working at it some with Rarity’s help, earlier, but she had to go and finish some orders.” The unicorn levitated the book to herself once again, quickly leafing through a few pages. “There’s one last thing I’d like to try, and then I’ll call it a day.” She put the book down on the table, before grabbing another.
“Well, Twi, this is good, and all, but there’s a rain storm scheduled for tomorrow morning, so I have to go and kick some ass to get the other pegasi up in the air.” Dash gave Pinkie and Lyra a quick peck before she gave Twilight a lasting embrace. I heard a few words pass between them during the hug, but I couldn’t make them out. After she broke away from the Princess’ Protege she came to me, and gave me a quick kiss. “See you later, Icarus. If not today, I’ll swing by your place tomorrow morning.” She paused for a moment. “Wait, rain. Tomorrow around noon, since it should be done by then.”
Dash walked from the room, and gave a last wave as she closed the door behind herself. Twilight opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off. “Hey, Twi, where’s that book you keep of all the different twitches and stuff that I have?” Lyra, Twilight, and I, all looked at Pinkie as she sat on the couch, her hair moving as if worked on by a telekinesis spell. “There’s other stuff happening, too, but the hair is all you can see. At least, all you can see with all my clothes on.” She flushed a bit at that, but continued. “I’ve never had a combination quite like this, so I wanted to get it recorded.” Twilight nodded, and a rather large book floated towards the protege, and she grabbed it. Pinkie quickly explained all the assorted symptoms of her Pinkie Sense, and I waited as she rattled off a rather lengthy list of experienced symptoms. “... and my hair is moving. That’s all of it.”
Twilight flipped through the pages of the book for several minutes before letting out an explosive sigh, quickly shutting the pink covered book. “Just like the last time I tried to make sense of it... I can’t give you any clues about what this one might mean. Even my appendix for this slowly growing collection offers no help. Even for the reactions for which we know the result the appendix is useless.”
I stepped up to Twilight, putting a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sure that a pattern will finally emerge once we’ve seen every single possible combination, Twi. I’m certain, though, that the day you figure it out is the day they stop happening.”
Pinkie looked horrified for a moment. “No! Twi-pie, never figure it out! If Icarus is right, that’d be horrible!” Twilight flushed at the infrequently used pet name, but Pinkie failed to notice. “I don’t know what I’d do without my Pinkie Sense!” She stopped for a moment, and then gave us all a sheepish smile. “I’ve got to go, now... The Cakes need me.” She gave Twilight a remarkably serious glare for a heartbeat. “Really, Twilight, don’t figure it out. My Pinkie Sense is as much a part of me as my leg or my arm. I don’t know what I’d do without it.”
“Oh, you’d be like me and my wings!” All three present looked at me, and I felt my cheeks flush under their combined scrutiny. “What, it’s a bloody joke. I can’t be super serious all the time.”
“Not funny, Icarus.” Pinkie started heading out of the room, and she gave me a quick hug as she left, soon departing from sight.
“So, Twilight, you said something, sometime ago, about needing a volunteer. What will I be volunteering for?” I crossed my arms as my gaze rested on the unicorn across from me.
“Oh. Yes. The spell. I was hoping that I could try casting it on you, so I could get a description of what the transformation process is like. I’ll only be using enough magic to transform you for a few seconds, so, ideally, it won’t be long.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You want to cast a spell on me that you’re still practicing with?”
“Well, every living creature that I’ve tried it on has seen success, and has changed back within just a few seconds of my estimated change time.” She motioned towards a pile of parchment. “I’ve been taking tons of notes, but I’ve yet to have any from a subject that could tell me about the experience.”
I threw my hands upwards, a smile flashing across my face. “Fine.” I pointed a finger towards her. “But tomorrow night you and I are going to have a repeat of our first night.”
The unicorn gave me a wide smile. “I’m looking forward to it already.” Her horn took on the traditional glow of charging magic, and her smile shrank just a bit. “Anything in mind, Icarus? Any creature you can think of, alive or dead, real or fake.”
“Um... Something that can fly. Oh, one of those mythological flying things. The, uh... Quadruped, famous, wings... You know the one, right? I just can’t remember the name.” Twilight gave me a nod. “Great. One of those.”
“Okay. Now, just stand still, and I’ll handle the rest.”
Lyra looked at me for a moment, and then Twilight. “Twi, you do have a counterspell, right?” Lyra’s look of concern grew a bit as the glow intensified. “You’re not just hoping for it to wear off, right?” The glow on Twilight’s horn continued to intensify, and Lyra stood up, taking a few steps towards Twilight. “Right?”
Twilight glanced at Lyra for a moment, before a smile came to her face. “Of course. It was the first part of the spell I memorized. I wouldn’t cast a transformation spell without knowing how to undo anything I might’ve done.” Lyra’s shoulders slumped, and I could tell that Twilight’s answer did a number to relieve her. “Okay, Icarus, we’re almost ready. Just a few more moments, and I’ll cast the spell.” I unconsciously tensed my body as she pointed her horn towards me, and I had to force myself to relax. “Three. Two. One.” The bolt of magical energy passed the distance between Twilight and I faster than I could blink my eyes, and it felt like a cool breeze washed over my entire frame as the magic seeped into me.
It didn’t last very long, though, and just a few seconds later the feeling passed, and I was still standing there, looking at two very surprised unicorns. “Nothing?” I looked at my hands, and down at my body before looking back up at the two women. “Nothing. Guess you’ll need to do a bit more refinement, Twi.”
“It should’ve done something, at least. This is... Disappointing, to say the least.” Twilight grabbed a quill, and a sheet of parchment, and she quickly began writing down notes, her words flying onto the page. “Are you up to trying again in about a week, Icarus?”
“Sure thing, Twi. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some other things to take care of, namely Berry’s beer, and I’m sure that the two of you probably have things to take care of as well.”
Twilight nodded, and returned to her books, but Lyra just shook her head. “I don’t have anything I need to do today, so I’ll just spend it with you.” She quickly moved by my side, and I took her hand in mine before walking over to Twilight.
I pulled Twilight into a hug, and gave her a quick kiss. “Don’t spend too much time on this one, Twi. It’s not the end of the world if you can’t figure it out. No spell is that important.” She blushed softly, before pulling me in for another quick kiss. She and Lyra also exchanged kisses, and then I walked out of the library, Lyra in tow.
I rubbed the back of my head as I looked at the mess of plumbing in the cellar of Berry’s bar. I could follow most of the pipework as it wound around the various kegs and columns, but I saw no real reason for such a complex system. “Berry, who laid out all this piping? There’s got to be at least thirty feet, per pipe, of waste.”
“Oh, well, I kind of drew up the plans myself. After having a couple drinks.” I shot a quick glance at Berry, and she flushed. “It’d been a long night, and I was still new to the business, okay? I was still working with nothing but tapped kegs, and I wanted something more modern.”
I looked back at the piping, a new level of appreciation present. “For drunk work, this is actually pretty good. Frankly, I’m amazed it works at all.” I stepped closer, and began looking at some of the pipes. “No idea where the problem is, though. Still, I think I can figure this mess out without too much trouble.” I pulled a small piece of paper from my pocket. “I’m free later this week. Not tomorrow, or the day after, but Friday. Say, around ten?”
Berry gave me a nod, and started leading the way back upstairs. “That’s fine by me, Icarus. You have any idea how long I’ll be out of business, though? Fridays aren’t exactly slow nights.”
“I’d say it’ll take me two hours, or so, to get all the piping taken down. An hour to figure out if I’ve already removed the problematic piping, and then another hour to get the whole thing up and running again.”
“Four hours?”
“About that, yeah.” I gave her a small shrug. “You don’t even open till four, though, so I’ve got some leeway room.”
“Yeah, that’s true. So, give it to me straight, how much?”
“Just labor is going to be about sixty. Parts... Well, you’ve probably got enough piping down there that I’ll just be able to recycle. So, I suppose, it’ll be about eighty bits by the time I’m done. Assuming nothing irregular.”
Berry let out a laugh as she unlocked the front door for Lyra and I. “According to you, that whole mess down there is irregular.”
“True, but I’m not going to charge sober Berry for something that drunk Berry did.”
Lyra grabbed my hand as we stood just outside the bar, and she gave me a quick peck on the cheek. “You’re never going to make more money if you’re so nice like this all the time, Icarus.”
I let out a scoff, and Berry flushed a bit. “She’s right. I was prepared for you to give me a figure twice as high as what you said. I mean, all that piping to go through?”
“Don’t worry about it, Berry. This is what friends are for, right?” She gave me a nod, and I smiled. “See. Now, I’ll be heading off. Maybe I’ll come by before Friday to savor some of your finer drinks.”
“I’ll hold a table for you, Icarus.” She gave Lyra and I a hearty wave as we strode away from the establishment. I didn’t have any major plans for the rest of the day, and I had been getting nothing done on any new drawings, so I decided that I’d just enjoy spending some time in the company of Lyra.
We spent much of the day wandering the streets of the town, greeting friends and neighbors alike. We even went by Bon Bon’s shop where I was forced to endure yet another barrage of wittiness from the candy store owner. This time, though, she at least mixed it up, instead of just relying on pure sex jokes, she dug into her store of sarcastic observations. Even with that, it was still an amazing day, and I enjoyed all of it. As nightfall approached, though, we retired to my abode, and shortly after I was cooking up a simple dinner for Lyra and I. She flitted about the kitchen as I worked, doing her part to facilitate the whole process, and within a short time of starting we were ready to eat.
Dinner passed in a blur of conversation, laughter, and delicious food, and just a short while later I was sitting behind my desk once again, a quill in hand as I idly watched Lyra read in one of the few armchairs in my personal study. “I doubt I tell you often enough, Lyra, but I think that you’re really beautiful. Especially right now.” Lyra blushed as she looked over at me. “Just, the way you’re so relaxed in that chair, a book in your hands, and the way your hair just tumbles down your shoulders. The whole thing.” Lyra didn’t respond as her blush deepened, and she tried to go back to reading her book. She couldn’t keep focused on it, though, and I chuckled as I looked down at the page before me, still blank as my quill hovered just over it. A few drops of ink fell from the quill as my hand shook, and then the world faded to black as my consciousness fled.