The Misfortune of Clover the Clever

"Tomorrow?!" Clover exclaimed. So soon. His mind was still made up, but that barely gave them any time. "How far are we going? Do I need to bring anything?"

"It's about two weeks travel on hoof," said Thunderhead. "But it's only about half a day's flight if we have lieutenant Dandelion carry the two of you."

Now he was starting to second guess his decision. "Wait... S... She's going to carry us?!" He said, gesturing to the large pony. "For half a day?! Through the air?!"

Dandelion let a full bellied laugh at his reaction, at least until her brain caught up with the words. "Wait a bloody moment... I am? Sure, they're a bit small, but yu can't expect me ta carry two whole ponies and my armor all the way home."

"I always said you missed your calling as a pack mule," Lieutenant Storm Caller laughed, unable to resist making a jab at his colleague's expense.

"It seems Lieutenant Storm Caller just volunteered to carry your armor," Thunderhead said without hesitation. "But consider this your punishment for snoring while Chancellor Thistle was talking. She's going to be holding that over my head for years."

"Ha," Dandelion jabbed at Storm's chest while not acknowledging why she was being punished. "Serves ye right fer callin' me a mule."

"Aten-Shun!" Called out Commander Thunderhead. Instantly both of his lieutenants snapped to attention, immediately dropping their banter.

"Sir!" They both said in unison, completely straight-faced.

"I want the two of you to figure out the best way to transport our guests. See to it that Lieutenant Dandelion is outfitted with a proper harness. If I suspect for an instant that somepony will find themselves in freefall on the trip back, I'll have you strung up by your ears. Do I make myself clear?"

"Sir! Yes, Sir!" They both sounded off.

"Dismissed!" He swiped a hoof, finalizing the order.

The two of them turned about face, almost mechanically, and marched to the door. They didn't once break their stance as their commanding officer kept his eyes trained on them. It wasn't until the door had completely closed again that he finally relaxed.

"And to think," he said, sounding tired. "One of them is supposed to replace me one day. I'll probably be stuck with this job for at least another twenty years before either of them are ready."

"I find the best sign of a good leader is one who really doesn't want the job," said Elder Lily from her seat. She had been watching quietly through the whole exchange, not even seeming phased by the shifts in the atmosphere. "I find myself facing a similar dilemma. I won't be around forever, and I worry about those I will eventually leave behind."

"Ha!" Thunderhead let out a sharp laugh. "That'll be the day. I still expect you to outlive us all."

"Perhaps..." She smiled back before turning to her fellow elder. "Gladiolus, would you be a dear and show our new exchange students to the restricted section. I would have them well equipped for the coming journey."

"I think I can manage that," Gladiolus said with a smile, clearly amused by the exchange, before leading both Clover and Azalea to follow him.

As the two young ponies left the room, Clover took one last look over his shoulder. Elder Lily had a smile on her face as she pulled a teapot and a pair of cups from a nearby cupboard, placing them on the table between her and the commander, before the closing door finally hid them from view.

Clover had always wondered what they kept hidden in this dark corner of the library. It's access was usually limited to ponies old enough to have retired from sun duty. While not everyone who had access exercised that privilege, those who did refrained from openly sharing what they found inside.

"So what's hiding back here?" Clover bounced a bit on his hooves. He couldn't deny he was a bit excited. He had dreamed about the day he'd have access to the restricted section, but never would've imagined it'd happen so soon.

"Oh, this?" Said Gladiolus as he fiddled with the lock. He had no doubt seen the excited gleam in the younger pony's eye, but hadn't felt the need to comment. "Nothing too exciting, you'll probably be disappointed. There's plenty of controversial material, but you can find that anywhere if you look hard enough. Primarily, we've locked away the more complicated spells, as well as stuff that's likely to hurt somepony either by accident or design. Which reminds me... Azalea, did your mother ever instruct you on what constitutes a war crime?"

"Mass extermination and anything that causes unnecessary suffering," she railed off like she had repeated it a thousand times. "Wait..." She pondered, her brain finally catching up. "Do you think we might be expected to help the pegasi fight their war?"

"I'd say it's almost a certainty," he said as he looked a back to Clover. "You really made an impression on Elder Lily when you fought with Dahlia the other day. So much so that you were her first choice when Thunderhead asked for a fighter."

"What about me, then?" Azalea asked with a measure of confusion. "I've never been in a fight in my entire life."

"We're hoping the political lessons your mother has no doubt drilled into you from a young age will be of major benefit. You may not realize this, but it's actually really rare for somepony as old as she is to have a daughter as young as you. But more importantly..." His eyes shot back and forth between the two of them. "I really shouldn't be telling you this, but we're worried that you might be the only one aside from Lily herself who can keep Clover in check."

"Keep me in check?!" Clover snapped, confused. "What are you saying?"

Elder Gladiolus turned around and placed a hoof on Clover's shoulder so fast it almost gave him whiplash. "What I'm saying is that you scared a lot of ponies the other day. Do you have any idea how much magic directing a sunrise takes? Well, you outstripped that several times over before Lily managed to stop you."

"But I..." He still hadn't forgotten how that felt, but to hear how much power he'd actually been using scared him. It also made what Lily had done to stop him seem all the more impressive.

"I see I've made my point," Gladiolus said as he finished unlocking the door. The metal grate that made up the door swung open with a loud creak, a sign that it wasn't used all that often. "You'll be alright. Just remember, with great power comes great responsibility. Anyway, in you go."

"You're not coming with us?" Asked Azalea.

"No," he said regretfully. "I would if I could, but I'm a little too busy as it is with all the ponies seeking my guidance. First the sunrise and now the Summit. If there's anything that makes ponies nervous, it's change."

The restricted section. So far, it had been exactly what Elder Gladiolus had said it would be. Nothing too exciting. The shelves looked the same as they did in the rest of the library, and the few shelves they had checked so far only had more complicated versions of spells they already knew. Like a conjuring charm that had twenty-three facets to its structure instead of the much simplified eight.

However, their search was also hindered by how dark it was. No sooner had Gladiolus left them to their devices, and they turned down the first row of shelves, then they found themselves almost completely submerged in darkness. Fortunately, this was an easy remedy for unicorns. It wasn't even really a spell. They just had to channel the tiniest bit of magic into their horns, and they lit up like their own personal lanterns.

Clover even had the added effect of the rest of his body, namely the crystal bits, taking on a purple glow as well. It actually caused a bit of a problem when trying to read anything, at least until he refastened his cloak a bit higher so he didn't blind himself whenever he looked down to read.

After a while longer, they started to find the spells that really needed to be kept out of the public's reach. Shape shifting, and not just changing one object into another either. Actually changing the makeup of their own bodies. Making empty space fold in on itself, which was a bizarre concept, to say the least. Neither of them could even really wrap their heads around it. They passed over a few that could be considered morally ambiguous, but the one thing everything they found had in common was how incredibly difficult all the spells were.

He raised an eyebrow at the next spell he got his hooves on. This one was kind of interesting. "Hey Azalea!" He called out. "Think we have any use for a spell that'll let us breathe underwater?"

"I don't think we'd have much use for that on a mountain," She called back. They had split up to widen their search after the first hour of less than fruitful results. "Wait... Does the description say breath water or able to breathe underwater?"

"It says able to breathe underwater." He reaffirmed the text.

"Write it down anyway. Who knows? It could still be useful."

That was how the two of them spent their day. Rummaging through old spells, new spells, and spells that were just strange. Any time they found something with a measure of utility, they wrote it down on the off chance it would help them some day. For all they knew, they weren't going to be back here for a very long time and they may have to create several new spells on their own, so the more notes they had to work with, the better. Unfortunately, after several hours of research, they started finding duplicate spells, similar theories, and there was still so much they hadn't gone through yet.

"Maybe we should take a break," Azalea said as she slumped back in her seat. "I think we've done about all we can."

"I'm not ready to stop, not yet." Clover had already felt the draining pull of mental fatigue several times since they started. If it was any normal day, he would've already taken a break, but the knowledge that he might not get another chance like this had kept him pushing forward.

Azalea sighed as she stood up. "Alright, just promise me you won't go too much longer."

"Huh?" His ears perked up as he saw her walking away. "Where're you going?"

"I'm going to try and find my mother," she said. "If this is going to be our last night in Elysium, I'd like to spend it with her. It may be years before I see her again, and I don't want my last conversation to be me fighting with her."

"Wait, you were fighting?" Clover asked. "Is everything alright? Do you need me to come with you?"

Azalea paused before looking back and shaking her head. "No. We've had our disagreements since long before I met you, even if all you did was help bring it to the surface. It'll be for the best if I go alone. I don't want to upset her."

Unfortunately, by the time Azalea was out of sight, Clover no longer felt like he could focus on his work. Her words had struck a chord in his mind, unwilling to leave him alone. Azalea wasn't the only one who needed to make amends, and while he still felt like he hadn't been entirely in control on his own actions, he still felt responsible for how badly he had publicly embarrassed the elder.

The thought continued to plague him as he started wandering up and down the dark rows. Even if she wasn't his favorite pony, she was still Azalea's mother, and he didn't like the feeling he had, that he had played a part in pushing the two of them further apart. Despite his inner turmoil, he still tried to make an effort to get something done, but it was no good. No matter how hard he tried, his eyes now just glazed over the pages without really reading what was on them.

He had been so lost in his own thoughts that he hadn't noticed that his wasn't the only source of light in the vicinity. Not right away anyway. It wasn't until he turned down the pre-lit aisle and tripped over a stack of books on the ground that he noticed the pony sitting at a short table, every inch of it covered with open tomes and loose notes.

"Hello?" Clover called out, not wanting to scare them. However, they still seized up at the sudden noise, dropping the book they had been holding in the shock. Apparently, they had been just as distracted as Clover had been, and it wasn't until she snapped her head to face him that he saw who it was.

Elder Dahlia looked back at him with eyes narrowed to pinpricks, her breathing coming rapidly as she started backing away. She made it about two steps before her eyes came back into focus, and she started to calm down. It was only a marginal difference, but it was noticeable compared to how panicked she had been only moments before. "Oh," she swallowed hard, further evidence of her discomfort. "Clover, it's just you. That glow actually makes you downright terrifying in the dark. Did you know that?"

Clover took another look down at his own glowing body. He hadn't really thought about it, but she might be on to something. Azalea hadn't seemed to mind, but she had been there when it first happened, and even then, she had been far more concerned with whether or not he'd survive the night. "I can't help it," he said. "It does that any time I use magic."

"You might want to see about hiding it before you make yourself an easy target for a griffin," she said, finally calming down the rest of the way. "So, I take it you accepted their offer? That's why you're here?"

"They wanted us to be as ready for the trip as possible," said Clover.

"It makes sense," Dahlia relaxed a bit more as she peered over Clover's back. "I don't see my daughter with you. Is she here as well?"

"She was a moment ago," he said. "She actually left looking for you."

"So she accepted the offer as well," Dahlia slumped her shoulders. "I sincerely hoped she wouldn't."

Clover cocked an eyebrow. "Why are you so against her going? Isn't this a big opportunity?"

"That remains to be seen," she said curtly. "Not everypony is all that keen on this new arrangement." She grit her teeth to the point they squeaked. "Even if it works, the pegasus home isn't exactly the safest place right now. Not with their ongoing war."

"I won't let anything happen to her," Clover rose to her defense. "Not while I'm still breathing."

"Don't forget you said that," she said with narrowed eyes. "Because I certainly won't."

"You don't like me, do you?" He said.

"What was your first clue?" She said sternly, but then relaxed her shoulders. "But it not about what I want. It took a harsh reminder from an old friend to help me see it, but ever since the two of you started spending time together, there's been a spring in her step that wasn't there before. You wouldn't have been my first choice, but I can't deny how happy she's been lately."

"Sorry about our little duel," Clover felt the need to say. He still wasn't completely sure if he'd been in complete control when it happened, but he didn't want them to stay on such poor terms.

"Water under the bridge," she said, accepting his little apology. "It served as a harsh reminder that I can't control everypony, no matter how much I might wish otherwise."

Deafening silence followed their impromptu exchange. If they hadn't run into each other tonight, they may never have had the chance to talk things out. While he felt that him and the elder would never really be friends, it felt good to know where each of them stood.

"So... What were you doing down here?" Clover asked before the silence got any more awkward.

"Oh this?" Dahlia said as she turned back to look at her table, apparently welcome for the change of topic. "I needed somewhere quiet to think," she followed as she slid over her building pile of notes, "and I wanted to help out as much as I could before you left."

"What is this?" Clover pondered as he reached for the bundle. He began leafing through the pages, eager to see what the elder had been working on. "Glimmer?" He pondered as he found a particularly strange spell formation. A lot of the pages he had flipped through were very similar to what he and Azalea had already found. However, this was something completely different. He screwed his eyes as he kept reading over the odd spell, still unclear of what it was supposed to do. He thought he understood, but it almost seemed too good to be true.

"Be very careful with that," Dahlia said cautiously. "While it can let you fly, the wings themselves are very fragile. All it would take is a little too much sun, and they'll start to burn up. Still... It's better than nothing. I wouldn't use them outside of an emergency. Unless that is, you figure out how to make them work with something other than water vapor."

"I'll see what I can do," he swallowed hard. It looked like it would be years before he could even dream of modifying a spell this intricate. He had never seen anything so complicated before, outside of the sunrise, that is.

Until he turned to the next page. What was drawn out here was on a completely different level than even the last one had been. What was worse was that it looked like whoever had written it had stopped halfway through. "Is this an unfinished spell?"

"It might not even be a spell," she said. "Professor Hecate used to challenge us with these seemingly impossible equations. Rarely did anyone ever make something useful out of them, but the exercise still helped with the rest of our studies."

Clover could see why. His brain was starting to hurt even more than it had earlier. Even if he only managed to make sense of a fraction of what he was looking at, it wouldn't be hard to see how it could help.

Elder Dahlia continued reminiscing about her younger years, but Clover was too drawn in by the problem in front of him to pay much attention. Even though it made his head hurt, one corner of the spell had already started to make sense. He pulled out fresh parchment and began scribbling some rough notes as he tried to piece the rest of it together.

The pain in his head continued to worsen as he worked, but he pushed on, inexplicably driven as he was to make sense of the puzzle before him. The pain slowly evolved into a hot spike that drove into his skull, and even when he felt someone start to shake him, the distraction wasn't enough to pull him from his task. Somehow, he knew that whatever it was he was doing was important. That he not only wanted but needed to finish the spell.

Just as he finished putting the last few lines together, a metallic taste entered his mouth. He began coughing and splitting, having apparently been holding his breath for an impossibly long time. He pulled his hoof away from his mouth, shocked at first by the blood he found there, but then even more shocked by the crystal laced throughout his foreleg. The heat he had been feeling throughout his body hadn't been figurative but literal. Parts of the crystal were still cooling back down to their purple color, but he could still make out traces of where it had been red hot only moments before.

"What did you do?" The Elder said in shock.

Clover turned to find Elder Dahlia staring wide-eyed at him. The look she gave him wasn't the fear she had shown before, but awe and just a hint of curiosity. He turned back to look at the notes he had been pouring over to see his finished spell. He wasn't completely sure what he had made, but there was no way he would've been able to make that completely on his own. "I'm not sure," he said as he stepped aside and showed her his work. It was true. Even though it had been his pen that had given life to the spell, he had no idea what it did.

Dahlia cautiously approached the table and looked over the new spell. If the number of times she tilted her head was any indication, she seemed to be having just as much trouble understanding what Clover had made as he had. "I think it's some sort of pacifying spell," she said. "It's just far more complex than any we use."

"When do we use those?" He had never heard of anyone using them before.

"Usually only medical staff use them to help keep patients under control," she said, still entranced by the notes. "I'm sure they tried using them on you and the others who survived the sunrise. At first, anyway. Clearly, it wasn't enough to stop them from burning up after surviving the sunrise itself. It's nothing short of a miracle that you not only survived but seem to be thriving."

Clover wasn't sure that thriving would be how he'd describe his situation. If anything, he'd say he just got very lucky. Whatever happened to him with that meteorite seemed to have fixed him, but things kept happening with him and his magic that seemed out of the ordinary. His magic now worked so instinctually that he wasn't even sure he was casting his own spells. There was also the time it seemed to be impacting his judgement to consider, and now here he was creating spells far above his own ability.

"Would you mind if I made a copy of this?" She asked, even though she had already starting scratching down her own copy.

"Um, sure," he said, he really didn't mind. "But why? Do you think it's any good?"

"I think we could've saved a few more lives if we had this before." She soon finished her work, and rolled up the new copy. "I sincerely hope it doesn't happen again, but it's best to be prepared anyway. Anyway," she said as she got up and stretched. "I really should try to find my daughter. You said she was looking for me?"

Clover nodded. "She left not all that long ago. If you hurry, you might be able to catch her. Don't worry about the mess," he said. "I'll clean it up."

"Thank you Clover," she said, seemingly caught a bit off-guard by his kindness. "You know, maybe I was wrong about you. An old friend of mine once said that if I spend too much time on the more influential ponies, that I'll likely miss the more talented ones. Maybe he was right."

He wasn't sure if that was a compliment or an insult, but that was the second time she'd mentioned an old friend telling her stuff she probably didn't want to hear. As intimidating as Elder Dahlia could be, he couldn't think of anyone who would be so brazen, much less one that she would actually listen to.

"It was Elder Gladiolus, in case you were wondering," Dahlia offered before Clover could ask. "He's always been watching my back, ever since we were young."

"Elder Gladiolus?!" Clover didn't know how to take that piece of news. "But the two of you..."

"Always seem to be fighting?" She said with a small smirk. "That part has never changed. Even when we were more than just friends."