Another Everfree?

I was awoken by the room suddenly becoming bright, and Sunset yelling up at me. “You planning to get up some time?”

“No… I wasn’t,” I groaned rolling over.

“Well, are you now?” Sunset sassed swaying as she stopped before the bed, leaving the door to the hall she had entered from open.

“Well no. I would, however, like to follow you about for a bit, if I may.” I pushed myself up with a yawn and unsteadily made my way to the floor. “I can’t say I’ll be terribly cognizant at this hour. Sorry that was a weird sentence from me, wasn’t it? Never mind that; what’s goin’ on?”

Nothing really, you just hadn’t gotten up yet, and it’s been awhile since I did,” Sunset remarked as I followed her out into the hall.

In the hall the same pegasus guard from before, Iron Rose was her name, met us there and escorted us to the library where Sunset had apparently already pulled books from the shelves. Upon arrival to the library, Iron Rose took position outside with a stiff salute, and silence. Sunset led me to a table at which she had a stack of books waiting. For what was probably the first half hour she flipped through the books, though I wasn’t paying much attention, thus couldn’t tell what for. During that time I hadn’t fully woken up yet, choosing instead to watch her as she occasionally would come to something which gave her a nostalgic smile. It was then that she stopped and lit a magical fire before my face, effectively snapping me from my daze.

“Wh-oh-uh? Why would you do that?” I Grumbled rising back to the chair after having fallen to the floor. “Well I I guess I’m awake now anyway, jeez.”

“You didn’t listen to anything I’ve said this whole time did you?”

“Not a word, Would it be too late in the day to request some eggs & bacon? Though I guess the castle would only have access to hay bacon… wait a second y’all have pig pens on yer farms? What function is there for that?”

Sunset laughed, “No, it’s not that late go, but when you get back, don’t j-just stare at me the rest of the day.”

“I’ll be back soon as I can find the way back then. Don’t suppose I’ll be gone too long. Well, we shouldn’t spend the whole day in here. Let's take a walk for a bit after I come back, and listen. Oh, almost didn’t ask, I assumed you’ve already had your fill. Shall I sneak you anything back or, do ya wanna’ come with?”

“If you can get it past the guards, I’d love another croissant actually,” Sunset waved.

After having done that, I returned looked around, and levitated a croissant before Sunset, watching as the deep purple of my magic turned to the lighter hue of her blue. “Uh, thanks. I didn’t expect you would, actually.” Sunset took a nibble from it.

“How could I not?”

“How did you get it in here? There’s no food allowed in here.”

“You asked me to. It would be harder not to. Wait actually that was a weird thing to say… I’ll just stop talking.” I took the seat opposite her which had been earlier vacated.

Over the next hour, I was lectured on the basics of magic by Sunset, who excitedly displayed the principles she was covering casting simple spells to demonstrate them. Some of the simplest spells I was able to recreate during our walk about the castle’s courtyard. The spells that veered into more complex areas, even spells as simple as creating a small firework or flame fizzled out at little more than a spark, and my telekinesis remained fidgety and inconsistent.

“Well fire doesn't seem to be my thing, and water isn't working either,” I slouched.

“Hey, that’s not too bad, you are trying to learn magic for the first time. Keep it up, Grim,” Sunset encouraged.

“True but I…” I trailed off, closing my eyes to picture the concussive spell I had cast on Silver Crescent, and applied what I had learned about magic to separate its components. I didn’t know it at the time, but my horn glowed faintly as I did. Then I compared that to what the spells I had been attempting had in common. When I opened my eyes, I let out a deep breath joining the different aspects I had learned into the array of a new spell. I found a target, focused, and released the spell as I sucked in a huge breath. The spell became a small orb which floated slowly forward. A falling leaf came into contact with the orb and stopped in the air gathering frost. The frosted leaf hung in the air for the 23 seconds before I released my breath; when I did, it thawed and withered as it fell slightly faster than it had been falling before it had stopped. “I- I did it. That worked,” I excitedly whispered, but my smile disappeared when I looked down to see the dry leaf crack.

Sunset came closer looking between the leaf I had frozen, and myself. “Excuse me?” Her horn lit up causing the air around her to shimmer. “This magical residue… but you can’t cast simple spells, how did you do something this complex? I don’t even know what this is that I’m detecting.

“Well I only intended for the stop to happen, the rest I don’t know… uh but that happened?”

“That did happen. You can go read over the basics again, I’d like to study the magic residue that left some more while I can,” Sunset waved me off her eyes becoming fixated on the leaf which had by now cracked into several small parts as if it had been stepped on.

I returned to the library and sketched an abstraction of how I remembered the spell as I had been weaving it, before looking over the simple spells Sunset had bookmarked. After a while, Celestia appeared beside me silently.

“Grimoire?” Celestia asked, startling me.

“Yes, Princess?”

“Sunset couldn’t Identify the magic you cast before, because she had been forbidden to study it. Have you realized what it was?” Though her words still had a bounce to them, Celestia had become somewhat more serious than before making it clear that she was actively putting forth an effort, to give off a pleasant air.

“I think so. The answers are in the StarSwirl section aren't they?”

Celestia nodded once, slowly. “A part of it. The other part, it sounds like you have cast before, from what she told me about your Timberwolf encounter.”

“The killing curse,” I replied solemnly. “One of the forbidden magics. I think its time then that I have a look at a documentation of that kind then, I can’t recognize it when forming the spell, and It seems to just end up as a part of my spell.”

“There are no detailed records of magic that directly causes death like this. Spells that cause poisoning, or impacts, and such things exist of course, but as you said, magic like you cast has been forbidden for a very long time.”

“That’s fine I have theories. I think it's similar to crystal magic, in that it is reliant on emotion in some way, given the circumstances of both times I did it. Celestia, I don’t want to hurt somepony. Help me?”

“Don’t be afraid, my little pony.”

“I am afraid. I thought my talent would eventually be leading me to use dark magic, and I thought I could handle that. But this? I don’t know, I don’t want to kill. Celestia, I don’t want to be afraid of my emotions.”

Celestia sat, and brought me into a tight hug. “Don’t be afraid, my little pony,” She repeated.

The rest of the day had passed rather uneventfully, as Sunset, and I spent most of it in our room reading fiction. When dinner came, the three of us including Celestia, sat in silence. None of us had quite the appetites of the prior day. When we had filled ourselves as much as desired we three stood and returned to what had previously held our interests upon returning from the hall. Celestia sent a smile my way as we parted for her to resume court. Sunset had been giving me concerned glances since Celestia had confirmed what my magic was.

“Hey, we haven’t looked at crystal magic yet, I don’t even know anything about it. So, I have been wondering, how do you know how it works?” Sunset inquired returning the book she had been reading to the shelf.

“I don’t. Well, I kind of do. Funny story behind why, but essentially it's a guess that emotions fuel that kind of magic. It sorta wouldn’t make sense if that weren’t the case, so it felt like a safe bet.” I stood up from the beanbag seat I was in, and approached Sunset. “Read my memories, I’ll show you,” I brought to mind the crystal heart reacting to the feelings of everypony to push out Sombra, and with it came images of the empire, and Princess Cadence. I also, to Sunset’s confusion happened to remember a well built but younger alicorn version of herself guiding a young Cadence as she learned to control magic.

“Oh… was I an alicorn in one of those memories?”

“Yes… it’s a long story. If you want to I can download it if I get a connection to my world again. It would probably be best if you didn’t, to be honest though.” I returned to the beanbag re-opening the light novel. “Ya know, this isn’t all too different from its counterpart in my world. The lead character’s name is even the same, Evie Greene. Though the human version's full name was actually Evangeline.”

“Isn’t that book for teen mares?”

“Hey I don’t make a habit of reading these, but this one stood out to me, even if the cover made me hesitant about it.”

We soon made our ways to our beds and fell asleep with my having read the first couple thirds of the series.

Over the next few days, we did much the same routine of Sunset and I studying and practicing magic, under Celestia’s guidance as often as she could pull away to be present. This a lot of the time involved us following Celestia around, and practicing in the court or where ever she had to be. During the course of these 4 days, I had cast 7 accidental killing spells of differing variety, on plant life, and 2 in attempt to do so. Celestia, as I would never have expected mentioned it as an off hoof comment to a particularly snooty official, which prompted me to demonstrate, thus creating the situation for one of the purposeful castings while resulting in a potted plant which found a cycle of its leaves bursting into flame only to launch straight up upon ignition each time they fully regrew. Due to the abnormal life cycle of that particular one, this happened every 12 hours on the dot. Thanks to Celestia’s own castings the cycle was altered so it would happen at exactly mid-day, and mid-night each time. “Never know exactly how the spell will manifest with me,” I had added at the time, before returning to my studies. Although Celestia assured the pony that I would never cast one at a pony, it remained true in that pony’s mind that I could be the bane of gardens everywhere if I wanted.

Twilight Sparkle had been scheduled to come in at precisely 11:58 and was allowed into the throne room which also served as the royal court no sooner despite her insistence on being half an hour early. When she was let in, Sunset and I had been seated on either side of the throne, and Celestia waited, and waited in silence between Twilight and herself not putting on any kind of menacing air at all, but making Twilight nervous regardless. Then just seconds away from twelve, She announced,”Twilight Sparkle!” She did this in a voice that while loud, and commanding, remained calm, and steady. Twilight had become interested in the potted plant which possessed a faint magical aura about it, it was in the very moment she returned her gaze from it to Celestia that its leaves ignited, causing her to jump as high as the incendiary compostables. Sunset, and I broke into rolling laughter seeing Twilight frozen stiff like a scared goat, while Celestia merely chuckled at the well-meaning prank.

When Twilight’s face had begun to become angry I spoke up, “Sorry Twilight that never gets old. Anyway, I’ll assume that as I created it, you are unfamiliar with at least the incendiary genius of this species?”

“Well, actually a ‘genus’ is a…” Twilight began, but Celestia cut her off.

“He knows Twilight, but that isn’t the reason you were summoned here,” Celestia held back her laughter.

“But then… What?” Twilight stumbled with her speech. “It’s an honor to be called here princess,” Twilight said as respectfully as she could while flattening her mane back out. “It won’t do that again will it?”

“No, no don’t worry about that, my little pony. Grimoire, if you would.”

“Of course Tia,” I broke script and for a moment Celestia, and Sunset’s concentration. “Good day Twilight Sparkle, my name is Grimoire Dusk,” I bowed slightly, apearifying a black hat upon my head only to move it to my chest in the bow, and have it whisk away when I threw it to the side. “And I am overseeing the creation of a special task force. You, miss Sparkle, have been summoned by her royal highness to become our third member. Our goal and ongoing mission will be to, without exception, and to the best of our abilities, spread the magic of friendship throughout Equestria by making as many friends as we can, and generally making ponies happy. Ultimately, however, our true goal is to gather the most powerful unicorns from around Celestia’s Equestria, and become directly responsible for the take-down of Nightmare Moon, and forward from that the restoration of a harmonious Equestria. While more specific goals are in place that is our official mission statement. In summary, you Twilight Sparkle, daughter of Twilight Velvet, and Night Light, as well as sister to Prince Shining Armor, have been summoned by Celestia herself to make some friends, will you accept?”

“I- I will. I’ll do it, princess. I’ll do my best this time.”

It had been, to Sunset and I, revealed that Twilight had in fact been sent to Ponyville in this timeline as well however failed to stop Nightmare Moon.

“I’m sure you will,” Celestia nodded, bringing a smile to both her own as well as Twilight’s face. “You won’t be alone this time, my faithful students,” She added giving a kind look to us each.

Twilight looked to Sunset who had remained quiet throughout the exchange, and recognized her from magic school, as well as the one who had previously been Celestia’s student before her. “Wait… I thought she… well…,” Twilight stopped without completing the statement.

“I did, but now I’m back,” Sunset simplified.

“They both have quite the interesting story to tell, I’m sure you three will get along wonderfully,” Celestia assured Twilight.

“Yes princess,” Twilight bowed.

“Yo, Tia! I’ma go grab a snack from the mess, a’ight?”

Celestia sighed in response, “Celestia, or Princess.”

Sunset stood up, and trotted up next to me, calling naturally as if she were still at Canterlot high ”Twilight, you coming?”

Twilight stopped a moment to absorb the situation, before robotically turning to follow us. When we had entered the mess hall, and picked up food to bring to a table was when she first spoke again to us rather than mumbling to herself. “So where did you two come from?”

We then proceed into a conversation which needs not be rehashed about the events between Sunset’s betrayal of Celestia, and forgiveness, as well as my story and how we had been studying and physical training over the last few days for the journey ahead. Twilight, needled to say wasn’t thrilled about the physical exercise. Thusly I directed her to, as she had before the ‘Running of the leaves’ read some books on running and more hiking. Afterwards, we discussed our next time and location to meet up, and Twilight headed home to tell her parents what she had accepted. Sunset, and I chose to spend the rest of the day outside, which included a stroll about the Canterlot gardens, and consequently a minute to knowingly appreciate the statue of Discord.