Tigerbright hummed to hirself as shi stirred the beans in the pot before lifting a few in the wooden ladle to hir lips. Taking care not to burn hir tongue, the chakat tasted the black beans. “Mmm… almost ready.” Then, as shi was about to check the rice, the doorbell rang. Shi glanced at the clock on the wall and grinned.
The tiger-striped taur made hir way to the front door. Opening it revealed a purple alicorn mare who smiled at hir. Before she had a chance to speak, Tigerbright frowned and said, “Twilight Sparkle – you are tardy!”
Twilight was instantly flustered and her brow furrowed. “What? How?! I’m sure I checked the local time correctly. Wait! I picked up a report from the governor’s office first before coming here and they made no mention of me being late.” The mare glared at the chakat. “You’re kidding, aren’t you?”
Tigerbright chuckled before leaning down to hug the alicorn. “Yeah, you’re exactly on time as always. It makes it too easy to tease you if you plan your arrival practically to the second.”
Twilight returned the hug. “You got me there, Tiger. What I would like to know, however, is who clued you in on that particular phrasing. I don’t think Celestia would have done it.”
“Let’s just say that siblings remain siblings even when they are centuries old.” Then the chakat noticed that they weren’t alone. A young male griffon was standing back from the door, his beak agape and staring at them. His feline blue-grey fur reminded hir of a Russian Blue cat, but his avian half was harder to place. The majority of his feathers matched the fur except for the two-tone brown wings and the dark grey mask across the eyes. “Who’s this fine young cock?”
“Oh! Your greeting derailed my thoughts.” Twilight gestured to the griffon to come forward. “This is Gimlet, my new apprentice.”
Tigerbright gave the griffon a warm smile. “A pleasure to meet you.” Tiger’s eyebrow rose when hir gaze returned to the alicorn. “Apprentice? In what?”
“Magic, of course.”
Now hir other eyebrow rose to join the first. “Magic? Aside from his natural flight magic, how can he do what only unicorns and alicorns can do?”
Twilight smirked. “Ask that of the chakat who can work runes and see gods.”
“Touché. I look forward to learning more. Meanwhile, come on in and be welcome. I had better get back to the cooking before dinner is ruined.”
As the visitors entered, both caught the aroma wafting out of the kitchen. “Smells wonderful. What are we having tonight?”
“I’m making burritos,” Tigerbright replied as shi checked the rice. “Vegetarian, of course, although I might have prepared some meat if I’d known we’d have a griffon as a guest.”
Gimlet spoke up. “It’s okay, ma’am – I’m a House Path student and used to eating vegetarian meals occasionally.”
“Fair enough. Good thing I cooked enough for plenty of extras. And you can call me Tigerbright.”
“Where’s Violet?” Twilight asked.
“She’s having a shower. She only got home from her field trip about ten minutes ago.”
“Isn’t that a bit odd? She can teleport from there, after all.”
“While that would normally be true, this was the last day of the assignment. So, instead of locking up the shuttle and teleporting home for the night, she had to pack up all her equipment and fly the shuttle back to base first. It took a little longer than she planned but she’ll be down soon. Hmmm… make that now.”
The visitors heard the clatter of hooves on the steps before a still-damp green unicorn with a mauve and pink mane came into view. The mare rushed over to the alicorn to give her a hug.
“Auntie Twilight! It’s so good to see you!”
“You too, Violet. And where’s your darling child?”
Tigerbright answered for hir wife. “Shi’s napping in the study,” shi replied, inclining hir head in its direction. “That made it a lot easier to concentrate on cooking when the sitter left.”
“How is it being parents to a foal while both of you still work full time? I had the full resources of House Path at my disposal when I had my children.”
“The community crèche does a wonderful job of looking after Lily,” Violet replied. “Whichever one of us finishes work first collects hir and brings hir home. Then Sandy Shores, a filly from next door, watches over hir for about an hour for extra pocket money while we freshen up and start dinner. She left when I arrived home today because Lily was asleep.” She then turned her attention to the griffon who had been hanging back. “Who have you brought with you today, Auntie?”
“This is my apprentice, Gimlet.”
“Apprentice?” Violet gave the griffon a welcoming smile. “Sounds like a story for while we’re eating.”
Gimlet grinned. “Yeah, I’m not your normal griff. And neither is this family, I reckon. You wouldn’t think that this was the home of the Chief Administrator of Emu Island. No staff and no pretensions. Cooking your own meals and so forth.”
Tigerbright grinned as shi chopped an onion. “Chakat families are like that. We very much prefer doing things ourselves when it comes to raising cubs, or foals in this case. And I enjoy cooking; I find it to be very relaxing after work.”
“Does Lily need feeding, love?” Violet asked.
“Not yet. When I realized you were going to be late, I gave hir a drink before I started cooking. Probably why shi fell asleep.”
“A full stomach tends to do that.”
“I didn’t give hir that much.”
“Oh, good. I’ll see if shi’s interested in more after dinner. My udder is feeling a bit full.”
“I’ll help you with the leftovers later,” Tigerbright said with a leer.
“I’m sure you’ve got plenty left too,” the mare replied with a smirk. “Need any help right now, hon? With the meal, I mean.”
“Oh, I could use your skillful touch,” the chakat responded. “Setting the table, I mean.”
“Are they always like this?” Gimlet asked Twilight.
“You’ve seen nothing yet,” the alicorn replied in a resigned tone.
Having finished preparing the ingredients including chopped red bell peppers, minced garlic, and chopped cilantro, Tigerbright put the first of the flour tortillas onto the skillet to warm up. Shi sprinkled a line of shredded cheddar cheese onto it and, when it had partially melted, removed the tortilla and put it on the preparation board. After first putting another tortilla onto the skillet along with the cheese, shi returned to the board where shi added rice, beans, and the other ingredients. Then shi expertly folded and rolled the result which shi then wrapped in foil.
“First one is ready!” shi declared before returning to the skillet to repeat the process.
Violet levitated it to the table and put it on Twilight’s plate before passing the guacamole and corn chips to her. “Anything you’d like to drink with it besides water?”
“Well, if we’re going to eat Mexicolt style, how about an appropriate beer to go with it?”
The unicorn grinned. “I figured you’d like that.” Her horn glowed and four bottles floated from the fridge. “Oh, can Gimlet have beer?”
Twilight shrugged. “He’s old enough. It’s up to him.”
Gimlet said, “Just water for me. I’m not really a beer drinker.”
“We can offer you wine or juice if you prefer?”
“Umm… do you have apple cider?”
“Sure do!” Violet swapped the beer for a bottle of Sweet Apple Acres Cider.
Tigerbright said, “Gimlet’s burrito is ready. Pass it along, please.”
As Violet passed the food to Gimlet, Twilight peeled back the foil on her burrito and bit a piece off. She chewed a bit and nodded. “Tathes gooth,” she commented with her mouth still half full.
“Glad you like it,” the chakat replied with a satisfied smile.
Soon, Violet had her burrito and Tigerbright took a bite out of the first of hir two. Shi needed to eat a lot more than any of the others, but that didn’t stop hir from starting up the dinner conversation.
“So, Gimlet’s your magic apprentice – how does that work?”
Thankfully, Twilight swallowed her mouthful before replying. “Every House Path student gets a beginner’s class in magic. We do this so no species is excluded and to give non-unicorns a basic knowledge of how pony magic works. Just because they can’t cast a spell doesn’t mean that they can’t use it in some way or figure out new applications for magic. Most non-unicorn students find it interesting but not of any particular use for their preferred areas of study.” The alicorn looked over to the quiet griffon. “Gimlet, though, was different. He wasn’t prepared to accept the status quo. Tell them what you said to me that day.”
Gimlet looked a little embarrassed by the attention. “I… I asked Professor Twilight why I couldn’t learn magic.”
Twilight looked back to the Violet and Tigerbright. “I was going to answer with the obvious until I thought of you, Tiger. If a chakat can gain a magic talent, why can’t a griffon learn unicorn magic? I had no idea how but the concept fascinated me. So, I interviewed Gimlet about his interest and he impressed me with his passion. I agreed to take him on as my apprentice, giving him extra lessons after classes. I am teaching him theory and we’re both working on ideas on how to enable him to work it in practice.”
Violet said, “Why do I think that you bringing him here tonight has something to do with us?”
Twilight giggled. “Tigerbright, mostly. The work we’ve been doing together on runes is one aspect of the puzzle. Terran myths is the other.”
Tigerbright frowned. “How do those things relate?”
“Have you heard of wizards and their magic wands?”
“Of course.”
“And what do mystic runes do?”
“They are statements of reality when correctly composed and activated.”
“What would you think if we inscribed a wand with runes that let it duplicate the function of a unicorn horn?”
The chakat chewed thoughtfully on hir burrito for a moment before replying. “All Equians are magical in some manner. A suitably inscribed conduit could utilize the being’s natural mana flow to empower spells… if the user knows how to shape them.”
Twilight gave hir an excited grin. “And that’s why Gimlet is learning theory and our work with deciphering the runes and discovering their functions is so important. We are going to revolutionize the use of magic!” The alicorn’s voice had grown steadily louder until she was practically shouting, her eyes starting to glow.
Tigerbright and Violet exchanged glances, recognizing when the alicorn had gone into one of her obsessive phases. The chakat got up from the table and asked, “Anyone for seconds?”
Twilight blinked and her eyes returned to normal. “Yes, please. I seem to have worked up an appetite.”
As the chakat busied hirself with preparing more burritos, Violet turned her attention to Gimlet. “What brought about your interest in studying magic?”
The griffon hesitated before answering. “Professor Sparkle asked me the same thing and even now I’m not sure why. I just find it fascinating. I grew up next door to a unicorn family and their son was my age, so we did stuff together a lot. We even did our school homework together to help each other so that we’d have more time to play. I suppose that’s when I got interested in his magic lessons. Turns out that I was quite good at theory even if I couldn’t do it in practice. Anyway, when I joined House Path as a student, that’s when I asked the professor why I couldn’t learn magic too.”
Violet smiled at the enthusiastic young griff. “I think that’s a perfectly acceptable question and reason. Besides, I know of plenty of unicorn mages in the past who were excellent scholars despite being relatively poor practitioners. You just need to play to your strengths. Focus on your theoretical studies for now and, hopefully, Auntie Twilight and Tigerbright will figure out a way for you to put that knowledge to practical use. Oh! And don’t hesitate to make suggestions or ask questions if you think of anything that might work with your species that a unicorn might not think of. As Auntie was fond of telling me as a filly, the only unanswered questions are those that were never asked.”
Gimlet chuckled. “Yeah, she’s already told me that one.” Then he looked embarrassed as Twilight gave him a smug smile.
“You don’t strike me as a Griffonian,” Violet commented.
“No, my family has been in Equestria for many generations.”
“How come you met Auntie Twilight then? She usually holds her classes in House Path’s Griffonian home base where she lives.” The unicorn turned to the alicorn and raised a querying eyebrow.
Twilight replied, “I was guest lecturing at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns and, while I was in Canterlot, I took the opportunity to do the same at the House Path branch there.”
Gimlet nodded. “When I found out that the professor was going to be instructing, I knew that this was my best opportunity. So, when she asked if there were any questions when she finished the lecture, that’s when I asked her.”
“Not the kind of question that I was expecting,” Twilight admitted, “but certainly one that intrigued me. So I asked him to stay back after the class and we had a good, long talk.”
Tigerbright chuckled as shi placed a fresh hot burrito in front of both Twilight and Gimlet. “You aim high, don’t you? No less than the Avatar of Magic was good enough for you.”
Gimlet looked embarrassed.
The chakat grinned. “No need to be shy about it. After all, I’m learning from her too and I’m not even an Equian with natural magical ability.”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “What Tigerbright is omitting to mention is hir talent for languages. I bet that you didn’t realize that speaking Equish like we’ve been doing is not hir native tongue. But it’s that very talent plus hir ability to perceive active magic that makes hir my partner in deciphering mystic runes. I’m learning from hir as much as shi’s learning from me!”
As the chakat padded back to the kitchen, shi said, “I’m a polyglot. If I was a pony, I’d have a language-related cutie mark. The first time that I went to Equis, Violet’s family never realized that Terranglo is my first language because my pronunciation and usage of Equish was perfect. The only things that can throw me are euphemisms and culturally based phrases. Thanks to Violet, though, I’ve learned most of those too.”
The unicorn nodded. “Actually, shi’s so good that I have to ask hir to speak Terranglo more often in order for me to keep up my lesser skill with that language. It’s easy to slip into the habit of talking Equish all the time otherwise. This being an Equian colony, very little Terranglo is spoken regularly around here.”
Gimlet frowned thoughtfully. “But it’s that language ability that makes Tigerbright so skillful with runes – it’s a language-based magic rather than a pattern-based one.”
“Exactly!” Twilight said. “Shi has been able to unravel more spells from the runes than I have despite my abilities and resources. That’s why we have been working together on them for months and the reason why I come here regularly for dinner. At least, one of the main reasons.”
Tigerbright finished wrapping another burrito and brought it and a fresh bowl of corn chips to the table. After handing hir wife the food, shi said, “You can see for yourself what we’re doing when Twilight and I update each other after dinner.”
“Umm, thanks,” Gimlet replied. “Somehow, I think I’d be way over my depth. I’ve only just started learning magic, and that’s the unicorn type.”
“Fair enough. Anyone want another beer?”
After Tigerbright made hirself a third burrito, shi settled down with the others to finish off their meal. When the table-talk was done, Twilight got up from her chair and looked to the chakat.
“Before food torpor has a chance to set in and make us sluggish, I suggest we get started.” She levitated over her saddlebags and pulled out a magitek tablet. “I have the results of the latest tests here.”
Tigerbright nodded. “And I think I have deciphered the function of another two runes. Let’s go to the sunroom to work on them.”
As the alicorn and chakat walked away, Violet got up and began levitating some plates to the kitchen sink.
“Can I help?” Gimlet asked.
“Sure. Clear the table while I start cleaning up the kitchen mess. Foil and scraps go in the bin there.” She pointed with a hoof.
The griffon began gathering everything off the table as asked. “I guess that your… uh… spouse cooks and you clean up afterward?”
Violet nodded. “My husband normally does the cooking because shi enjoys it, but I occasionally do it and then shi gets to clean up after me. We share every duty equally.” There came a cry from a nearby room. “Speaking of which, it’s my turn to feed our foal. Sounds like shi’s hungry,” the unicorn added as the cries grew louder. “Would you mind continuing with the cleaning up while I attend to my daughter?”
“No problem, ma’am. House Path students have to do their share of this kind of work too.”
“Thanks. And you can call me Violet,” she added as she trotted away.
The cries quieted and the unicorn soon returned with her foal carried in the glow of her magic. The child was still grizzling after having woken up hungry but shi must have realized that food was on the way. Gimlet got a good look at the foal and immediately saw that shi was very different from what he had expected. While shi had a normal enough pony body, two-tone tail, hooves, and all, shi was a taur like Tigerbright, and instead of a neck and head of a pony, there was a second upright torso that resembled hir tiger-striped sire. The griffon realized that he was looking at a true hybrid of a chakat with a pony. That was why they kept referring to the foal as ‘shi’ and ‘hir’, the non-Equish pronouns used for hermaphrodites.
Violet said, “Do you mind if I feed Lily here? Some people think it should be done in private.”
“Like I said before, ma– Violet, I grew up in Equestria. It’s nothing I haven’t seen many times before.”
The mare settled down comfortably on a sofa and placed her child by her udder. Lily quickly found a teat and started suckling.
Violet smiled at the sight of her daughter contentedly feeding before she turned back to Gimlet. “Why did you choose to ask Auntie Twilight to teach you magic? Why not some other teacher?”
The griffon paused in his clean-up efforts. “Because other teachers discouraged me from learning magic. That’s why I asked the professor why I couldn’t rather than asking her directly to teach me.”
“Makes sense, but I’m not sure if you realize what you have let yourself in for. Twilight Sparkle is further above those teachers than they are above you in magic skill. After all, she is the Avatar of Magic. For somepony like that, it’s hard for them to comprehend your problems. It’s so easy for them that they can get frustrated with a student who has difficulties with the lessons. I’m speaking from personal experience from the occasions where she helped me with my magic lessons.”
“I’ve been doing well enough, or at least theory-wise. Experiments with practical applications have been a total failure so far.”
“Yes, but the latter obviously was not unexpected, so Twilight wouldn’t be unhappy with your progress. That’s good to hear. She doesn’t typically take apprentices, preferring to lecture whole classes so she doesn’t get frustrated with individuals.”
Gimlet gave her a keen look. “How do you know this?”
Violet smirked. “Because, as I said, I was one of those frustrating individuals. Auntie Twilight likes to help out family. She tried to teach me some really advanced spells while I was in Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, but I wasn’t that good. There were some things I was exceptionally competent with, but I found my limits, much to Auntie’s disappointment.”
“That must have sucked. Oh! Sorry.”
“Nah, don’t worry about it. I had my sights set on another career anyway and that led me here. Now I’m about as happy as any pony, or griff for that matter, could possibly be. Anyhow, the point is that if there’s a way for you to become a magic-user and your heart is truly set on it, you’ll do well under Twilight’s tutelage. She’ll work with you as much as you need. Then you can come back here and show me how you can clear up that mess with the magic in your talons.”
Gimlet chuckled. “I’ll do that.” He looked in the direction of the sunroom. “As long as the professor and your husband can find a way to make those runes work for me.”
“Trust me – Tiger and Twilight have made immense strides in the year that they’ve been studying them. They probably would have unlocked the secrets of the universe by now if they hadn’t had to reverse engineer the lost spellcraft. The two have already created some practical applications but they’re being extremely cautious about releasing them to the public.”
The griffon frowned and tilted his head. “Why are they being so careful? I know next to nothing about runes but they seem to be just a way to write spells instead of how unicorns cast them with their horns.”
Violet snorted. “If you think punctuation and grammar are important in normal written language, it’s exponentially more vital with runes.”
“Why is that?”
“Because it’s an extremely precise language. One misplaced or incorrectly written character could mean the difference between expending the energy to light a candle or to blow up a city.”
Gimlet’s eyes grew wide. “It could do that?!”
Violet waved a hoof dismissively. “That’s an extreme example and it’s more likely that the spell would fail due to being miswritten, but the potential is real. Just think – the Chakastran portal operates entirely through runic spells, and that has maintained a tunnel through space-time hundreds of light-years long for many centuries. That’s a frighteningly powerful construct built by the foremost mages of their time. However, when magic runes were invented way back in Earth’s history, those mages were among the very few who knew about them, let alone could utilize them. But now, there’s a whole world of magical beings, many of them unicorns and other spell-casters. The risks have increased proportionately, and so must the precautions.”
The griffon shuddered. “Yeah, I see what you mean.”
“And now that I have thoroughly intimidated you, let me reassure you that the knowledge couldn’t be in safer hands or hooves. My husband and Twilight Sparkle are two of the most responsible individuals I know. Someday, this new old magic is going to revolutionize our civilizations. Just you wait and see.”
Gimlet put the last of the pots in the dishwasher and closed it. He straightened up with a determined look on his face. “I’m going to make it my goal to help bring that about.”
Violet retrieved her replete foal to cradle hir in her forelegs. She smiled and nuzzled Lily before replying, “Y’know – I believe you.”
# # # # # # #
Author's Note
A new mage in the making!
And a glimpse into the future of Violet and Tigerbright.
BTW, the avian half is based on a shrike.
Art by Foxenawolf
