Equus Bravo - Equestria - Ponyville - Golden Oaks Library

It was a dark and stormy morning after their concert. The weather crew had to delay rain for the festivities, so that amounted to needing an extra big storm to make up for it.

“Why is she here?” Thomas whispered harshly to his fellow doctor of philosophy. He pointed to a certain Loyal Guard named Glados (aka Gladius). Zecora and the disguised changeling played a game of gin while gossiping about the various creatures they saw in the Everfree Forest. The zebra didn’t know or care that Glados was a changeling.

“She needed a place to stay,” Bodo whispered back. He was careful to hide his mouth from their guests.

“Golly, she eats people.”

“That isn’t the only thing she eats. I blew up her legs and she regenerated them after consuming Clover’s bindings. If the Queen hadn’t declared us a victor of some bet because we got Fleur to safety, she would have continued to fight us. Anyways, I have had to live with worse people, and she promised to behave.”

Thomas tabled questioning the whole ‘I had to live with worse people’ bit. “Fleur and Penny know she is Gladius.”

“They are in the hospital and she can take a new disguise until we drop her off with Black Hoof in Canterlot during our court date next week with the Riches.”

Thomas rubbed the bridge of his nose before responding. “And are you ready for that?”

“Well, I tried my best,” Bodo complained in an exasperated tone. “You guys had me making up for lost time these last few weeks by not only choreographing a full concert but also handling Fluttershy.”

“If you need help, I am available now.”

“Good! I need Pinkie to come to Canterlot with her pet. Gummy is going to be a key piece of evidence.”

Thomas stared at his colleague like he was insane.

“Don’t worry. Autumn vouches for the alligator, and she has near omniscience in this country.”

“Do you need anything else?”

“Yes, I need a skillful unicorn to perform a highly specialized spell that allows people to express their thoughts audibly without use of their mouth. I was going to use Penny, but you know….” The two paused in reverence for their reddish-brown comrade who had sacrificed her horn protecting them even though they both knew they didn’t deserve her protection given their true intentions for this utopia. “Other than that, I should be fine.”

“Are you sure you don’t need anything else?”

“I just need peace and quiet to work on my arguments. There is a lot of legal research to do due the laws here being based on vague principles and precedence. First, we will have to prove that we have the right to sue. Then we have to prove that we have been wrong. However, if we do the former, we will most certainly win the latter.”

Bodo rubbed his bearded chin before continuing. “If you should do anything extra, it should be dealing with the reporters. Spin some story that makes the Riches into a villain and us into both victims and heroes. A picture of sad Fluttershy would do wonders.”

The rockstar professor didn’t have anything left to say. Thomas didn’t leave to do his chores. The storm might have been a small deterrent, but the clean-shaven, straightlaced culinary specialist had more unfinished business with his colleague. He just didn’t know how to approach it.

“What?” Bodo asked with annoyance in his tone. His eyes flashed with an imperative to succeed at his mission.

Thomas pointed at the hooded humanoid creature that could transform into a gray pony. She just sat in a chair unblinking and completely still. It was obvious nothing was going on inside of her.

“Clover?”

“Yes. Jiminy Crickets, who is she? Why did you make her?” Thomas pelted his shorter comrade in questions.

“She is based on a pony I met from another Equus. You remember when Autumn met Arachne the Second when she had saltwater poisoning and almost died. Well, I had the same thing happen to me. I need her back.”

“Why didn’t you tell us and why do you want her back?”

“Because I was not whole without her and I wasn’t ready to talk about it. Losing her was too fresh when I didn’t think I would ever see her again. I am not like you.”

Thomas squinted his eyes. He knew exactly what Bodo meant. While it was okay for the man himself to talk about his own difficulty to feel strong emotions, he didn’t like Bodo using his deepest insecurity against him.

“With your mind powers, I can finally give her an intelligence based on my memories of Clover. Then she will be just as real of a person as any of us, and then I will finally have a reason I can believe in to fight and live in this strange pony land.”

A thunderstrike punctuated this revelation.

“It seems you aren’t willing to give me what I want, so I am going to explain why I need it. Sit down. It is storytime. I am only going to do this once, and if you interrupt, I am going straight to working on my opening statements for our legal battle.”

Thomas and blinked dumbfounded but obliged Bodo when he started creating show with his illusion magic. Zecora and Glados stopped their game to watch.

Equus Delta - The Honeyed Lands - The Grove - Golden Oak’s Laboratory

Doctor Bodo Stein’s POV

After I took a hit from Black Hoof’s bomb, my consciousness travelled through the dimensions until I found myself caught in a trap set up by a dryad named Golden Oak and her unicorn pupil Starswirl. They had used a magical lantern to capture my essence.

“Master, something appeared in the lantern!” Starswirl shouted.

“Well done, sapling,” Golden Oak complimented. “This is a djinn. They pass through the dimensions, and we can use them to empower our spells and even receive knowledge of the future taken from the universe’s veil.”

“Let’s make it tell us a prophecy!” the foal demanded enthusiastically.

Golden Oak smiled as she used her magical staff to cast a spell upon me. I couldn’t say anything, but I could still see, still feel. Her magic burned through me. They couldn’t hear my screams as they coerced words of prophecy out of my being.

“On the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars will aid in her escape, and she will bring about nighttime eternal!” my voice came out of my metal prison.

“What does it mean?” Starswirl wondered.

“The words torn from the veil are often very cryptic,” the dryad explained. “But there are ways to decipher them.” She stabbed more of her magic through me and towards the veil. Instead of words, this time an image of a violet star surrounded by five smaller white stars apparated. The dryad gazed deeply into the image and found knowledge neither Starswirl and I could. “A hero is the big star, and the five smaller stars are the hero’s comrades. Together they shall set the person of prophecy free from her prison. Her prison is the moon...no her own darkness. The hero shall set her free from own jealousy.”

“Who is the person of prophecy?”

More magic knives tearing into me revealed an image of Nightmare Moon.

Starswirl went even more wide-eyed. “She has wings and a horn. What is she?”

Golden Oak squinted deeply at the equine of prophecy. “The form is called… an alicorn, an equine of perfect harmony who can live forever granted they don’t fall to injury or sickness. Fascinating.”

The foal mouthed the words ‘live forever.’ “How long will it last?” he asked, referring to me.

“Djinns don’t run out. It will just go on forever unless it is forced to another dimension that it has an anchor in. Don’t worry about that though. For a djinn to fall through the cracks between realities, its anchor must have been severely damaged or destroyed. It is extremely unlikely that a djinn’s anchor will be restored.”

Equus Delta - Unicornica - Platinum Palace - Starswirl’s Laboratory

Doctor Bodo Stein’s POV

Years passed and the young student became the old master. Through that time, Starswirl used me for countless number of prophecies and spells, seeking the secret to becoming an ageless alicorn. It wasn’t all bad. While prophecies felt like I was getting shot in the foot, let’s just say that being used as a catalyst for spells felt the exact opposite.

“Clover, are you listening?” Starswirl questioned his only pupil with such intensity to scare the poor filly. At the time, Clover didn’t know much about me. Starswirl didn’t like sharing his magical instruments with foals like Golden Oak did.

“Yes, Master Starswirl,” the filly replied with a squeak.

“Good because I am only covering this once,” the unicorn stallion stated and then pointed to his chalkboard, which showed a hierarchy of ponies and where they lived. “In searching for what makes a truly harmonious equine, I came to a realization that it was a too difficult place to start, so I decided to look at a truly harmonious society first. A society is bigger than a person, so it should be easy to inspect how its finer parts work together.”

Starswirl then pointed to the earth ponies living in the valley at the bottom of the picture. “Each equine species follows a different part of their natures. The earth pony have an appetitive soul and follow their guts and base desires. They are farmers, cooks, merchants, and partiers. Their societies are democratic in nature where reason and the many momentary desires of the body are given equal say. It is a truly chaotic and unpredictable society.”

The scholar moved his pointer to the pegasi in the clouds above the valleys. “The pegasi have an honorable soul and follow their hearts. They are soldiers, athletes, caregivers, service providers, and law enforcement. Their societies are meritocratic by nature where the desires of the body are ignored in favor of the will of the heart. While they will readily suffer a thousand blows and even die for others, they let their competitiveness and bleeding hearts overrule reason.”

Next the unicorn reached the unicorns in the mountain city above the clouds. The mountain and the spires of the city looked like unicorn horns. “The unicorns have a reasonable soul and follow their minds. They are scholars, lawgivers, artists, and sorcerers. Their societies are monarchies by nature where the desires of the body and the demands of the heart are curbed in favor of the way of reason. They forgo the pleasures of the body for the higher pleasures of the mind and will not overreact to slander and boasts. Through reason, the unicorns can perceive the ideals we ought live by like strength, healing, beauty, hope, courage, and sorcery.”

Finally Starswirl ended at the alicorn sitting at the top of the highest spire in the mountain city with the sun behind her. “Alicorns are the philosopher princesses of the truly harmonious kingdom. They embody a harmonious soul where reason rules over its honorable and appetite perfectly. They use the myth of the tribes to keep the equines happy with their place in society.”

Clover raised her hoof. “Master, how does one become an alicorn in this truly harmonious society?”

Starswirl smiled, remembering why he picked this clever foal as his pupil. “Good question. The philosopher princesses will pick a truly deserving equine as their pupil.” Starswirl used his magic to make a chalk unicorn from the mountain city joined the alicorn in the sun. “After teaching the equine the ways of magic, the alicorns will send the pupil into the valley where the light of reason is furthest.”

The chalk pupil descended into the earth pony valley. “The pupil will struggle to see in the darkness of ignorance, being so used to standing next to light of reason. The equines of the valley will think the pupil crazy to claim that they are surrounded by a darkness.” A shadowy apparition that vaguely resembled an alicorn surrounded the valley equines.

“Once the pupil comes to truly understand and appreciate magic, which is harmony in essence, will they be able to ascend once again. That is when the pupil becomes an alicorn.” A chalk spire grew in the valley underneath the chalk pupil, revealing a new castle. When the castle stopped growing, a star appeared behind the pupil and it grew wings to complement its horn.

Clover rubbed her hoof against her muzzle as she considered something deeply. “Well, if it takes another alicorn to direct an equine towards ascension, from where does the first alicorn come?”

“That is what I aim to find out,” Starswirl answered with a gleam in his eye.

Equus Delta - The Honeyed Lands - Mount Olympus - The Tallest Peak

Doctor Bodo Stein’s POV

Starswirl’s research first breakthrough into harmony magic came in the form of nature magic. Returning to the lands of the dryads, the sorcerer climbed the tallest mountain.

The mountain should look familiar. While the dryads referred to it as Mount Olympus, the ponies would one day call it Canterlot Mountain.

“Do you think this is wise?” Clover wondered.

“Nothing is more important than figuring out the mystery of the alicorn. Think about it. An ageless body immune to the chaos of time and nature,” the master unicorn replied.

“Stop this at once, Starswirl!” Golden Oak called as she struggled to find purchase on the hard rocks. Dryads didn’t belong on the top of mountains like this one. She had chased her former pupil up the mountain despite the danger it meant to herself in order to prevent him from casting a spell that would mess with nature.

The sorcerer ignored his teacher and performed the spell. Again, I was present as the catalyst. Six runes appeared in the sky and then suddenly the air stopped moving. A magic nova burst across the sky covering the entirety of the Honeyed Lands.

The thing about taking the chaos out of something is that it has to go somewhere — a lesson the sorcerer seemed to never learn. In this case, Starswirl had created the Windigos.

The malevolent spirits, which fed on hatred, flew through the sky towards the equine kingdoms of the north. The sorcerer had inadvertently both created a utopia for equines and brought about the worst ice age known to Equus.

The ice age had also caused the dryads to develop an incurable disease where they would lose all their leaves, become weak, and then go dormant every winter.

Clover left Starswirl for a long time after this to help protect the unicorns from the chaos her master created.

Equus Delta - Equestria - Fifty leagues west of The Grove - In some random cave

Doctor Bodo Stein’s POV

After the windigos got settled, Starswirl spent a decade protecting Equestria. He made many allies in his travels — among them, the famous five pillars of harmony. He had another breakthrough in his studies of harmony magic and that lead him to manipulating a seed from Golden Oak’s tree. He brought the five pillars to a cave where his teacher wouldn’t find him and where he believed Equestria’s capital would one day be.

“We just need to put our harmonious natures into this seed,” Starswirl explained to the pillars. They obliged the sorcerer.

I wasn’t a catalyst this time but I got to see everything from my lantern. As they planted the seed, I could see an equal amount of chaos magic pushed aside and accidently infused into a serpent hiding behind a rock nearby.

I couldn’t say anything from my metal prison, so they left the seed none the wiser of what Starswirl had done.

Equus Delta - Equestria - Everdeen Village - Starswirl’s new Laboratory

Doctor Bodo Stein’s POV

After a few more years of no breakthroughs in the study of harmony magic, Starswirl became painfully aware of his own morality. He summoned his former pupil Clover to aide him in time experiments aimed at extending his life.

“Are you sure about this?” Clover questioned. She remembered what had happened with the Windigos, but Starswirl had earned a heroic reputation working with the pillars protecting the fledgling nation.

“Absolutely,” Starswirl asserted.

“You said that about that destiny spell before it gave all the earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns in Equestria cutie marks.”

“I would consider that one a success even for an incomplete spell. I really don’t know what I am missing. Regardless, once I cast this spell, you will either live two hundred more years-”

His spell activated earlier than he expected. That was the problem with time spells. You didn’t know when they would go off.

Clover disappeared in a flash of light.

“Or you will be sent two hundred years in the future.”

The unicorn sorcerer took the loss of his pupil hard and became cynical afterwards. He never became careful though.

Equus Delta - Equestria - Everdeen Village - some pony’s home

Doctor Bodo Stein’s POV

Starswirl eventually did find a way to extend his life an extra two hundred years, and he used that extra time to continue his research in alicornhood. One day, the unicorn heard tale of two young equines that had ascended. He teleported to the home of those two and demanded answers.

“How?” he interrogated the two foalish alicorns — one with a coat of alabaster and the other navy blue.

“You’re scaring them,” the earth pony parents rebuffed.

“I need to know. It is a matter of all importance.”

“They don’t know either. They were just playing together like they always do as far as we were aware.”

Starswirl stared at the brand new alicorns to figure out what had happened. The unicorn had in all his years of study failed to realize the most essential fact: harmony is the bond between people. Alicornhood comes from reaching a pinnacle in a kind of bond and then having an epiphany. It could be in romantic love, friendship, or, in this case, the familial love between two sisters. He couldn’t see what I could see. I saw a powerful familial bond between the two sisters who loved each other the way only family can.

“They need to learn magic now,” Starswirl told the parents after finding he was unable to discern their secret towards ascension. “I will teach them.”

Equus Delta - Crystal Empire - Crystal Palace - Sombra’s Study

Doctor Bodo Stein’s POV

Starswirl forgot about me and left me in his study to spend what I assumed would be an eternity of sober sanity. I was a magical entity, and neither time nor isolation had any affect on my sanity. I often wish I could go insane as then it assumed the unbearable boredom would cease. One day, the equines of Equestria had learned that Starswirl had disappeared, so a few profit-minded pegasi decided to pilfer his laboratory. Among the object stolen was my lantern.

The equines sold me around. Most of my new owners treated me like an antique decoration, but eventually I landed in the hooves of another powerful unicorn sorcerer named Sombra in the Crystal Empire, which is far north of Equestria.

“So you can tell prophecies,” Sombra stated after reading some notes on me left by Starswirl. He performed the same magic Starswirl and Golden Oak had used on me countless times.

“You will betray your kingdom and the one who loves you,” the veil said in my voice.

“No, that can’t be. This must be a lie.”

He used the spell over and over again, but only got the same answer. Sometimes it was a picture of him being corrupted by shadows.

The unicorn became obsessed with undercovering the reason for his betrayal and in doing so he found his origins as an umbrum. Had he left the shadows of the past alone, he would have avoided the shadow of himself he became in the future.

After Sombra took over the Crystal Empire, Equestria responded in force. Clover had only recently returned back to the world after being flung into the future. She was the one who devised sealing the then corrupted sorcerer until they could deal with him in a thousand years after the equine of prophecy had come.

In the battle, Clover found my lantern and took me after remembering as a keepsake of her lost master.

Equus Delta - Equestria - Castle of the Two Equine Sisters - Clover’s Study

Doctor Bodo Stein’s POV

Clover brought me to her place in Equestria. She used me for prophecies, but all was forgiven the day she gave me the only freedom I had experienced in centuries.

“According to Master’s notes, you are a being from another dimension. Does that mean you think?” Clover asked me. I couldn’t answer her and had long lost the will to even try. “Maybe if I interface with you mind-to-mind, I can hear your voice. Then I will have the wisdom of the veil without needing to pull out cryptic prophecies.”

She channeled her magic through me, and I felt her mind prod at me. Wanting freedom, I pushed my way into her mind.

“Hmmpft” I shouted with her mouth. I leapt with her hooves and promptly fell on her face.

‘Hey, stop that. Give me back my body!’ she commanded me from inside her mind.

“Rawpft!” I countered. My eloquence had taken a hit from all those years not being able to talk. I sent her pictures and feelings to communicate my desires. One was vengeance for all the pain I suffered telling ponies like her prophecies, the other was to do simple things like eating a gyro sandwich, and the last was an agreement.

‘What? How is this even possible? You felt all of that? Wait if you can see all around you and you been in my room for the last decade, does that mean you saw…..”

He mind blazed with countless questions, but I ignored them all as I crawled zombie-like to the kitchen and enjoyed food for the first time in two hundred years.

When I stuffed her silly, I gave her back her body. I got to enjoy the food, and she would suffer the pain for overeating.

“Ugh…,” she groaned.

Once she recovered, I answered all her embarrassing questions. After that, we talked about moving forward. Well, she talked. I just pantomimed mentally what I wanted. I hadn’t been in the talking game in a long time.

“So basically, you don’t want to be used for prophecies ever again, I exclusively use you as a spell catalyst, you get one day a week to do whatever in my body within reason, and I have to make this mind talking spell permanent.”

I mentally nodded.

“What do I get from all of this?” Clover questioned seriously.

I sent her images of all the spells and magic I had seen Starswirl and Golden Oak use but hadn’t shown her.

“I have all of Starswirl’s books. I don’t need you to learn these spells.”

I dug up some images of human knowledge.

“You could lie and take advantage of me.”

I mentally frowned and decided to just offer my friendship as what I can give back.

What surprised me was Clover considered it, and she dumbfounded me when she accepted on terms I become her friend. Apparently, Starswirl wasn’t the only person who needed to take friendship more seriously.

Equus Delta - Equestria - Fillydelphia Outskirts - Some Cave

Doctor Bodo Stein’s POV

*Thump Thump Thump*

The heavy footsteps of a two-headed ogre reverberated through the cave around us. The ogre had taken to eating equestrians for breakfast, and Clover and I came to stop him.

“Give me a song,” Clover told me, jiggling my lantern to encourage me. I didn’t feel it, so it didn’t bother me. What did matter was Clover often needed music to get her spells into rhythm. Music had a special place in harmony magic and finding the right song could mean victory or defeat for us.

I gave her a mental image of a radio with a dial for her to turn. She surfed the imaginary radio channels for her desired song.

“Immigrant song is cliche and overused. I don’t like Dragonforce.-” That had hit me where it hurt. “-I don’t know what baseball even is and who these Astros are. Come on, get me the good stuff. That...that can work.”

The Rocky Road to Dublin began to play as Clover rounded the corner to get the ogre’s attention with a spell to the faces.

“Get her!” “Where is she?” the ogre yelled at herself. Clover galloped around the giant as she charged her spell. The ogre threw boulders as her and I tapped into my friend’s spare magic to deflect those that would have hit her. It was really a battle of two heads versus two minds.

‘Thanks!’ she mentally complimented me.

‘Just focus on getting that spell finished!’

Clover wasn’t the only one using magic. The two-headed ogre prepared a spell. Given their greater size, they would have access to more latent mana.

“I’m ready.” “I’m not ready.” The two heads stated, shooting off a half-baked arcane bolt. It turned out half-bake was more than what I could handle with the magic I had control over. Clover lost a large portion of her tail to the attack and I didn’t have any more shields left to give.

“Eat you now.” “No, cook first!” The ogre pounced onto Clover, and then found himself floating up to the cave ceiling. The stalactites acted as nails by piercing him and keeping him in place. The spell finished by slowly turning the ogre to limestone. I was no fan of killing, but Clover was in charge and could ruthlessly kill for her country.

Clover sighed. ‘That was too close.’

‘It wouldn’t have been so close if you could cast your spells before you enter combat,’ I retorted. Keeping her alive was a full time job now she decided to play hero.

“It is not like I can just cast a spell and then put it aside for…,” Clover trailed off. The mare was seriously clever, and I knew that look in her eyes. She had an idea.

Equus Delta - Equestria - Castle of the Two Equine Sisters - Royal Court

Doctor Bodo Stein’s POV

“A dragon threatens Thine realm in the far east. We beseech thee, brave unicorn, to subdue these troublemakers and bring them to justice. Will thee do thine duty and protect the Realm? ” Princess Luna demanded of Clover while fully utilizing the Royal Canterlot Voice.

‘She said duty,’ I joked.

The unicorn sorceress facehoofed.

“Is there a problem, Clover?”

“No, Your Royal Highness. I will leave immediately to deal with this invader.”

Luna dismissed us, and Clover made her way to the chariots.

“What are you, five?” she demanded of me.

‘What? A duty joke?’ I feigned ignorance. ‘If becoming an adult means who have to give up the things you found enjoyable as a child, then I preferred being called childish. It is far wiser to find more things enjoyable rather than fewer. Also, I think once we convince ourselves that something isn’t enjoyable, we permanently lose the ability to find joy in it anymore. That is probably why there are so many miserable adults in the world because they are forbidden from being happy.’

“Enough of your silly philosophy. You embarrassed me in front of the Princess.”

‘If you think that was embarrassing, then you will have to invent words for what I plan this Friday when I take over.’

“Ugh, I don’t even want think about it,” she groaned. Pointing the pudge she had developed, she continued. “Why did I ever agree to letting you take over my body? You just spend it eating.”

‘You did it for friendship, obviously. I am still part changeling, so I am always hungry. It just translated towards eating food when I take your place. Plus, think of all the ponies you have saved by becoming a little fatter.’

“I can do that fine without getting fat.”

‘But you can’t do it without me. Anyways, it is not like you will become obese with how much the Princesses have you running around the kingdom doing the job that previously took all of the pillars to do. Face it. I am the only one giving your body the necessary nutrients to handle all that hero work.’

“I really think it is highly questionable if not flat out unethical to do anything to a unicorn’s body against their wishes.”

‘Never stopped you guys when you used my whole being as a lens for the veil,’ I countered. Clover flinched at the low blow. Fallacious as my logic was, she couldn’t really respond to that. ‘Also, don’t I deserve a body too? If I had the ability and our situations were switched, I would totally give you your own body, and then you could do whatever you wanted with it. For now, I am exercising my right to have a body through a willing volunteer. There is no going back now our minds have fused to this extent.’

Our argument continued until we reached the location of the dragon attack. We soon found out the dragon brought friends.

I got Dogs of War playing as we engaged ten adolescent dragons and their father. The biggest and the bravest of the children attacked.

‘Remember. Our mission is to subdue, not kill.’

“Wind Snare Three,” Clover commanded, and I turned her spellbook page forty for the spell. Taking the magic already imbued into the page, she casted Wind Snare Three without need for a long casting time. The spell sapped all the wind from the charging dragon’s wings. She plummeted to the ground and landed into a magical net that the spell had also created.

The unicorn sorceress spent the last three years developing a spellbook where she could precharge the spells contained in its pages and then cast them when she needed them granted she found the right page. Fortunate for her, Clover had me to do all that page memorization.

Three more young dragons came at us. “Flipping Shocks and Tethered Fate.” I had to flip rapidly to get both spells in time before they took a bite out of Clover. Flipping Shocks caused the closest dragon to find his limbs suddenly pulled to the skies while his back and head anchored to the ground. If he decided to move against the new equilibrium, electrical shocks would punish him. Tethered Fates caused any hexes casted on one target to apply to a few others at reduced effectiveness. The three became too encumbered to fight despite the reduction to spell potency.

Despite being mostly magic resistant, certain spells could pierce a dragon’s hide like lightning. Wind and gravity manipulation didn’t directly affect the dragons, so they had full effect as well.

Seeing his children fall in combat, the countryside-rampaging daddy dragon swooped in.

“Cork, Big Iron, Chain Teleport, and Dogs of Earth!”

Cork was exactly what it sounded like. The dragon tried to use his firebreath but found a giant cork in his mouth preventing him. Big Iron transmuted boulders around us into metal slugs, which flew at the dragon until he got knocked out of the sky. Chain Teleport kept him swing at us and missing as we moved a few of his big steps away. Dogs of Earth caused the remaining boulders to become earth golems in the shape of dogs to pounce on the dragon. As the golems covered his limbs, the mighty dragon started slowing down until they completely buried him aside from his nose and corked mouth.

The rest of the young dragons quickly surrendered.

‘That was a month of precharging spells well worth it,’ I commented.

“Yeah,” Clover replied and then sighed. “But now I have to spend another month just to recharge them. I might have to sacrifice on variety in order to get multiples of the more effective spells.”

‘And then discover that we no longer have a spell we need?’

“We will just spend more time memorizing and practicing.”

I grumbled, reconsidering our friendship agreement. I didn’t sign up for memorizing spells. I doubt I could cast them if I were a changeling again anyway as they require a unicorn’s touch and I don’t have Autumn’s mimicry ability. At best, I could cast simple spells like object teleportation and telekinesis on top of changeling-specific spells. ‘

Equus Delta - Equestria - Castle of the Two Equine Sisters - Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns

Doctor Bodo Stein’s POV

We spent an entire decade perfecting our magical duo, and we came out fine. Clover complained about unimportant things, but we can’t always get what we want. It might be dismissive. After more than two hundred years of not having a body, the complaints of the embodied seem naive.

“Keep doing that fire spell, Curtly,” Clover instructed a foal in her classroom. We had become part-time instructors at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns when we weren’t needed saving Equestria from the foe of the year for the Princesses.

“But it is basic magic,” Curtly complained. “I want to use complex magic like you.”

“And basic magic will save your life. Anypony can use basic magic, and if they wield them with skill and tact, they can defeat any unicorn charging a complex spell. I learned that the hard way more than a few times.”

Clover moved onto the next foal. “Moss, make sure to keep rhythm. Basic chain casting is a waltz, so you have to step along with it. One, two, three, one, two, three. If it helps, hum while you cast. Do that, and you will find that your enemy won’t only struggle to hit you but also your spells will hit with more impact. Music is a magic in itself. Let the magic be music for you and dance.”

The filly simply nodded as she alternated between three spells over and over again.

My buddy the magic instructor checked on the last foal in the class. “Okay, Zapp, you need to think about what spells you combine and in what order. You are casting lightning, fire, and water. You want the water to come before the lightning, and you should never cast it with fire. Try water, lightning, and then ice for a much stronger effect.”

I watched from my lantern as Clover led her pupils in a magic waltzing style and what she called ‘basic spells’ that would become standards for any unicorn education. Fleur de Lis’s magic fencing style was definitely an offshoot of Clover’s waltzing.

I started to flicker, and Clover immediately forgot about her lesson. “What is going on, Bodo? I felt you disappear for a moment.”

She communicated the sensation of missing a part of herself to me. I had felt it too. ‘I don’t… No, I didn’t think this would happen. It has been more than two hundred years. Someone must be regenerating my anchor to that other Equus.’

I flickered once more. We panicked as the feeling of incompleteness fell over us again. When you tie so much of your mind to another person, there sudden absence feels like a sudden vacuum in your mind. You can’t ignore it, and you know who is the only person who fits inside of it.

‘Let me take you with me,’ I called out. Before I completely disappeared, I received a small piece of Clover’s mind through the veil back to our Equus where its Clover was long dead.

Equus Bravo - Equestria - Ponyville - Golden Oaks Library

Third Person POV

“So do you understand why I need you to help me grant this Clover a mind?” Bodo pled to his comrade whose hard work had returned him to this dimension. He finished his illusion show and now he needed Thomas’s cooperation or he would just move onto other pressing matters. For example, he would prepare his legal arguments for Lo-Costs’ lawsuit against Filthy Rich next week and visit Dame Honest Penny, Ambassador Fleur de Lis, and Fancypants at Ponyville General.

“I understand, but I still refuse,” he answered, causing my right eye to twitch in annoyance. “You need to accept that the Clover you met over in this other dimension is gone to you. Making a puppet to replace your friend is unhealthy and creepy.”

“What could you possibly know about sharing your mind with someone else? You can’t go back to living without them anymore. If you had what I had with Clover, you would have never given her up.”

‘You wouldn’t let go of me, Tommy, would you?’ Slither asked with mock innocence. She wasn’t as single note anymore now that her claim over his left hand had grown. The artificial intelligence spawned from Queen Chrysalis’s magic had developed her own unique personality over the last three months. It still desired him to use his power so she could grow her influence, but she had started telling jokes and asking for strange things. For instance, she once demanded that he play hoofball just to see if he could beat the ponies at their own game.

Thomas declined to answer his colleague. Zecora and Gladius kept their words to themselves.

Lightning struck as the door slammed opened. In entered a drenched and frantic Princess Celestia.

“Where is Nightmare Moon?” she questioned anxiously.

Bodo mouthed ‘we will talk about this again later’ before addressing the Princess. “It is all a misunderstanding, Celty — I mean Your Highness. Come with me and you will learn about what happened last night. Pardon if my explanations are brief though, I am a bit worn of explaining things today.”

The Princess didn’t know what to think. Gladius had the good sense to hide in the shadows less she accidently implicate Lo-Costs with the Magistry of Loyalty.

Bodo commanded his Clover magical construction to come stand next to him. She was still in humanoid form because the philosopher didn’t want the diarch recognizing her as Clover the Clever. By using the puppet’s magic, he dried the Princess off and offered her an umbrella.

“We will talk as we go to the hospital. There are some ponies there who also saw what happened and fought bravely to protect me and my friends. Also, by the way, how is your protege Twilight Sparkle? I ask because we are in desperate need of a smart unicorn for a little experiment when we visit Canterlot soon.”

He briefly considered just letting the Clover puppet cast the spell but then thought it might would probably be better to form a relationship with Twilight Sparkle sooner rather than later.

Princess Celestia, Bodo, and Clover left the other three inside the library.

‘Do you think we'll ever get as close as Clover and Bodo did?’ Drafty, who was one of his bandit thrall doing community service in Bitaly for her crimes, wondered.

The stoic philosopher rubbed his temple as all of his thralls and Slither discussed their relationship with him and how much they all needed each other. How he wished he could be rid of them.

Author's Note

The title is an homage to Doctor Frankenstein's Monster.

This chapter was originally planned to also cover the court case, but Bodo's story took too long.