The Cat, Witch and the Wormholes

Chapter 4. The World According to the Cat

Being able to do magic again after all this time brought excitement back into my life. For the first few years at least. It turns out that my magical talents had diminished greatly and even simple charms like levitation and telekinesis took a lot of concentration, also my inner magic pool made for a nasty surprise - if I ever to overtax it reserves my mind begins slipping and I revert to being feral feline. At least for a time until my magical reserves refilled.

This caused some incidents where I blacked out and woke up in some strange places while my cat-self did only spirits know what. And I shudder when I think of what the cat-me could've done while I was 'gone'.

On a bright side I'm not so defenseless anymore still growing in size and strength and already gained few inches in height, growing to nearly half of average pony size, which is perfect. You will not believe how much I'm tired of looking from the bottom up. I miss my usual unicorn size so much. And yet, somehow, no one pays attention to this, as if this is a common everyday thing.

While I was struggling with my magical studies my pink caretaker has found a new hobby - matchmaking. She fancied herself as a great priestess of romance whose destiny to make sure everyone has a pair. Even our beloved Empress of the Sun nearly become victim to this crusade of love. Cadence relentlessly searched for someone worthy of the title of Sun Goddess Special Somepony. Thanks ancestors she wasn't successful. But her designated best friend wasn't this lucky, and so Sunset buried herself in books so that no one would constantly remind her of certain blond unicorn existence.

Said colt is actually not such a bad choice for our wayward young sorceress, as it seemed. He is rich, handsome, athletic and royal blood. Enter Prince Blueblood, descendant of Princess Platinum and the current heir of their dynasty. And he is the nephew of Princess Celestia. It could've been worse. Some lowly Royal Guard or a joke of one. She should be grateful for such a good match-up. He is just overly shy, hiding his real emotions under guise of fake bluntness and arrogance. Even I don’t need super power special talents to see through it. He is such a bad actor. But Sunset gone into complete denial and drowned her flustering in studies. Well, it's her loss. Because this colt is doing goo goo eyes every time he'd see her, and if it's not infatuation, then I don't even know.

The only bad thing is that Cadence magical training suffered greatly. She was not as advanced as she should have been. Other than basics, minutiae and some flashy stuff her knowledge of the great world of magic did not increase for months. Yes she is not as prodigal as Sunset, but that is not a major reason - she just lazy and likes to fool around instead of learning. She reads wacky romantic novels, teen filly's magazines, and loves to draw relationship diagrams for all her ponies she acquainted with. Even the maids did not escape it. And I really hope that she does not have one for me.

How do those two manage to remain friends definitely beyond my comprehension. They are so different, so not alike, that they were supposed to drift apart ages ago, but they are still together. And so our days mostly consisted of the fact that Sunset spent time reading, Cadence making the diagrams, and I meditated on the texts, trying any new spell I could find in the hope that it would work. Most didn't. The fillies even stopped being surprised to see me reading scrolls or books. They did not even ask why I could read. In fact, they never really asked anything. They quickly became accustomed to my magical wonders and my inability to respond in any understandable form.

You ask why I did not try to dispel my transformation? I did my best. It turns out that in the last millennia the magical sciences have completely changed, and now only the most complex spells and wards require chanting arias or careful writing of runes. There are so many new spells, so much new knowledge, but even they were useless in the fight against my condition. It seems that the spell that I used in my impromptu transformation did not put my real body in any particular subspace of reality giving me a hastily made cat body like any modern spell, but actually changed my whole nature to feline, and there are even some transformation reinforcements with super sophisticated anti-tamper protection. Why there were no warnings in this book about possible complications? Why was there not a word about this extra protection? Why didn't I check everything before reciting the spell? I just have no answer to that. But I do not give up. There are still so many books there that the opportunity to return to my unicorn body is not off the table.

Besides, learning new spells is always a reward in itself. And those spells that did not work require more magical power or greater concentration, so it is not a big loss for now. Not that I would forget them or anything. I could always try them later, when my magical power grows stronger. Super everlasting memory for the win.

The life of Canterlot castle went smoothly. Mornings with dawning Sun, evenings with rising Moon. Eternal equilibrium of tranquility. The ponies live their lives. The cat enjoys a midday sleep. And the two fillies were engaged in their personal affairs, occasionally speaking with each other.

"Ya know, I think we should give it a new name."

"Who?"

"The cat."

"Why? Whats is wrong with his current name?"

"Calling him 'Mister Silky Paws' is foalish, and we are not foals anymore"

"Well, we are thirteen, so hardly adults."

"My point is it's stupid to call him by that name."

"It's cute, thought."

"He isn't some cute kitty. He is already bigger than some dogs."

"Maybe he will be big like a manticore."

"Sweet apples, I hope not." Sunset widened her eyes and flinched as a joke.

"Maybe you right. He would eat everything in the royal pantry." At this statement, he glared at the two fillies, making them laugh.

"How about Werecat?"

"That meanie! He isn't some magically transformed evil pony!"

"Then Sphinx."

"But he doesn't look like he came from the desert and pyramids."

"Astro."

"He isn't from space."

"Our Almighty Overlord."

"He isn't a God. Cant you come up with a normal name?"

"Like what?"

"I don't know, maybe Mister Speckle?"

"Yeah, yeah. Again with 'mister', just call it Speckle, or better it was Midnight Speckle, his coloring rather darkly."

"This is still better than Werecat."

"So that's it! We call him Midnight Speckle. I can even shorten it to Midnight." Grinned Sunset.

"I still think Mister Silky Paws is a good name."

"Na-ah. I don't call him by that name anymore! Hey cat, kitty-kitty!" Seth again pulled back his eyes from the scroll with an irritated look. "Which name do you like more? 'Mister Silky Paws' or 'Midnight Speckle'?"

Seth expression was replaced by an expression of pure disbelief, and he immediately returned to his scroll, clearly determined to ignore noisy fillies.

"See? He preferred Midnight."

"I think he just ignores you."

"No way! He definitely liked it! I will now call him only by that name. Hey Midnight! Kitty-kitty!" Seth lowered his head more and more ignoring her. "See? He definitely heard me!"

"And decided to ignore you."

"Whatever."

"So are you free from your studies?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Oh, good. I just finished calculating your romantic horoscope."

"Urgh! Here we go again." Sunset sighed in despair.

Having nothing better to do I decided to follow Sunset to her lesson with Princess Celestia. I could not participate without revealing myself to her, but listening to their lessons is always fruitful. Just another time we learned how to cast a domed shield spell, and it turns out I'm very good at it. And it would be nice to learn how to teleport myself. Sunset has already learned this, but my self-study from books did not bring me much success, so a little help would not be bad.

But it seems that today there will be no remedial lessons, because Princess Celestia leads us to the Palace Vault to show us some ancient artifact that she received from Starswirl the Bearded. Some long-dead unicorn wizard who was a court magician many centuries ago. And the most intriguing is that the Princess said that this artifact was created with purpose to find out the fate of the one who looked into it.

In front of the central wall of the Royal Vault was a large round mirror with dotted frame made of crystals and surrounded by nine delta chevrons.And from time to time the mirror surface waved in small concentric waves, and its frame was hummed with a low reverberant sound.

The Cat stood in front of the artifact, fascinated looking in the mirror, and thousands of thoughts flashed through his head.

The Young Sorceress listened attentively to the story of her teacher, seeing her dream in the mirror reflection.

With a sinking heart, the Monarch looked at her with the hope of a positive outcome. She would not fail. Not this time.

"So, with this, we can travel to another world?"

"Yes, my faithful student. But Starswirl said that it is very dangerous, because that world is very different from ours."

"But it is still possible?"

"Yes, but the mirror opens the portal only once for three days every thirty moons."

"It's a plenty of time! We can learn so much new!"

"Sunset, you want to go through the mirror? You cant! This is a very bad idea!"

"But I can always return, I will have three days before the portal closes."

"But what if you're late? I can not risk you! You are my student!"

"I'll be careful, and I'm the most powerful unicorn in the Equestria, you said it yourself. I'll be fine."

"It is still dangerous. Sorry, Sunset, but I can't let you do it!"

"But..."

"Not! This is the final decision! Let's go back. I was wrong. To come here to show you this mirror was a bad idea. Come with me. We are leaving."

And taking one last look at the mirror, Sunset turned and ran after her teacher. When they left, no one remembered the cat still sitting in front of the mirror.