XP: 41,000/48,000 Level 8 (Bladesinger 6/Paladin 2)

I knew I wouldn’t get all of the experience from the dragon. Worst case it would be divided up 7 ways between the element bearers, Celestia, and myself. The best case scenario was that it’d be split between me and Celestia, but why did it divide it by 3? Did one of the girls actually hit that fucking thing? There’s no way, right?

Well, anyways, it’s Saturday now. The first day of the journey was uneventful. We stopped just after sunset on the outskirts of some small town. It was a little smaller than Ponyville, so there was nowhere for us to sleep. We did manage to find an old widowed mare who offered to let the Princesses sleep in the room that used to be for her son before he moved out. The rest of us setup camp near the dirt path into town.

Celestia’s guards wanted to just have 1 pony stand guard outside the shared bedroom and rotate every hour since we have so many ponies. To my utter shock most people murmured agreements, so I decided to step in. The least I would accept is 2 ponies outside the door, purely because you need an extra there so they can hold each other accountable. I mean seriously Celestia has 2 guards stand outside her chamber in the castle every night, why would we switch to 1 in a less secure area.

I told them that ideally having 2 outside the bedroom and 2 patrolling the outside of the house, so we can keep eyes on the windows as well. I only rolled a 12 in persuasion so I thought surely they’d shoot down my 4 pony suggestion and maybe accept the 2 pony suggestion. Which is why I was pleasantly surprised when they accepted the plan to use 4 ponies with 2 hour shifts.

I say all of that because that was our first night. Now? We officially entered the badlands about an hour before nightfall. During that 1 hour we’ve already had 4 ponies pass out from overheating. We have literally infinite water and are constantly reminding everyone they need to hydrate, but I guess that still isn’t enough.

Once we stopped and started setting up camp Celestia conjured a metric fuck ton of logs. Apparently they were prepared before the trip and she was just pulling them from a teleportation circle in storage. We set up multiple campfires around the site with one large bonfire in the middle. For the most part you can go anywhere in camp without being too cold, but outside the comfort of our campsite it’s around 30F.

That brings us to now, I’m on my way to the royal tent to go grab Luna. Tonight is when the Moonblade told me to return to her in the dreamscape with Luna. “Stop. Once the Princess retires for the night we are to only allow interruptions for emergencies.”

“First of all, the sun has been down for like an hour. There's no way she’s in bed already. Secondly, you seem to forget there’s more than 1 Princess in there. Circling back to the first point, the sun is down, period. As far as I’m concerned, not even Shining Armor himself can give me an order as long as there is more than 1 star in the sky.” Technically he can’t give me orders at any time, but it sounds better if I word it like this.

As I explain my final bit of my counter argument, I use Thaumaturgy 3 times in quick succession. I dim down the campfire illuminating this section of camp, creating almost pure darkness. Then I put my hand on his barrel just behind his neck and use the 2nd instance to cause the ground to shake. To put the cherry on top I use the 3rd instance to cause the loosely secured tent flaps to burst open with wind, right as I speak the last word.

Intimidation. (Advantage)

2 and 17. 17 + 1 = 18.

The guard I’m resting my hand on replies with wide eyes. “Ap-apologies, I’m still getting used to having a 2nd guard branch.”

I instantly cancel all of the Thaumaturgy instances early, flash him a big smile with my eyes closed, give him a couple firm pats and reassure him, “Is that so? I suppose that’s understandable. Hope the rest of your shift is uneventful”

I walk through the tent and the first thing I hear is a soft sigh, “While I appreciate you actually using your words like an adult this time, I would prefer if you could learn to resolve conflict without intimidation.” Celestia nags me while laying on a large pillow and reviewing some papers.

I take a deep breath in through my nose, be strong Ignis, be strong for Her Grace. “I’m working on it, can’t turn coal into diamond in a week. Luna, are you ready to get started?”

“Ignis, diamonds aren’t made out of coal.” I look back to Celestia and see her giving me by far the most judgemental look I’ve seen since I got her.

“Oh? Well they were where I’m from.” I just give her a shrug and go lay down on a large rug on the ground.

“Aye, had a particularly nasty nightmare to sort through, but I’m ready now. Just go to sleep and I’ll find you.” Luna offers her delayed response.

I close my eyes and a few minutes later I open them again to find myself a familiar looking forest. “There you are, child of Zarra! Where’s our Maiden?”

“She should be here any minute now….” Right as I finish my sentence I see a ripple in the sky as Luna just seemingly appears as if the sky was an ocean. “So, how are we doing this?”

“Right, so I have two theories. One is that the memories are located in your soul and they have merely been repressed. Long ago, a few centuries after the first sundering, there was a God that had his followers reincarnate after death. Thanks to that we were able to discover that natural reincarnation suppresses the memories of the soul. Why? Who knows. This is important to note though, because Druids are known to perform reincarnation magic. When the druids perform it however, the soul retains a majority of its memories. If your memories are indeed locked away in your soul I can repurpose the reincarnation spell and that would hopefully unlock those memories in a similar way.”

“You can repurpose a spell?” I ask with an eyebrow raised.

“Child, I’ve existed since the first sundering. That was well over 18,000 years ago, in that time period us mere mortals had more freedom in how we interacted with the weave. The real problem is that I can’t cast spells in that way anymore. I can only cast the spells that are stored in me.”

“Well then why bring it up at all?! I don’t know if you’re aware, but there are no fucking Druids here.”

“Yes, but Our Lady is quite powerful. She can perhaps use her own magic to probe your soul in a similar way?” We both look at Luna.

“Perhaps. I would rather not use magic that interacts with an individual's soul, however. I recognize the importance of this, so I’m willing to do it, but I need to brush up on the specifics of the spell. I can’t do that until we return from the summit. I refuse to perform such powerful magic without 100% confidence in my ability to perform it without incident.”

I reply, “I completely agree. I’d be more than uncomfortable if you were “probing” my soul while only being half sure of yourself. What’s the 2nd theory then?”

The mature elf points at my forehead, “If that body is truly your body then your memories should still be in your head. If that is the case I am significantly more confident that Her Grace can retrieve them.”

“Prior to my banishment there was no such magic that allowed memory manipulation. However, 1000 years is a long time. There's a chance such magic was discovered or created in that time. I’d have to ask my sister though.”

My fellow elf glances at me and we both look confused. I decide to voice the confusion, “Luna, can you not just access the memories via the dream? Dreams and memories are heavily connected to each other.”

“Now that you mention it, I believe I did manipulate the dream of a spy at some point to determine what she knew. I can give it a try.” She instantly ignites her horn and everything around us fades to black.

I look around to find I’m completely alone now. I feel a pulsating sensation in my head and squeeze my eyes shut. When I open them again I’m somewhere unfamiliar. It’s a large and ornate temple. My body is entering the main hall of the temple when I hear a sniffle to my left. My body turns its head to the left slightly and I see an adult drow on her knees with her head in her hands quietly sobbing. “Oh no…”

I start running over to the drow and once I’m closer hear my own voice call out, “Tala, what happened?” Tala?

In between sniffles the girl slowly replies, “I’m ashamed brother, what would mom think of me if she was here?” Oh Tala is the sister from my previous memory.

“I don’t understand, you’ve been a devout follower your whole life. There must’ve been a mistake in the ritual. I cannot comprehend why you’d be unworthy of the Moonblade.” As I respond I sit down on the floor next to her.

“NO! There was no mistake, I’m a failure Ignis.” Memories begin to flood in, filling in the 20 year gap between mothers Last Dance and now. In quick flashes I see myself chasing Tala with a wooden sword, the first time I casted fire bolt and started a fire in the garden, as more and more memories begin to process I notice something. I’m seeing Tala less and less, ah I understand, I see her fencing with a much older drow, flashes of her constantly being surrounded by priestesses.

Everyone just assumed she was the heir, I mean she was the oldest and on top of that she was a drow. It was a fair assumption. I see people referring to her as the future Chosen and Sword Saint. One memory I’m looking out my bedroom window in the middle of the night and I see candle lights in the distance with a single shadow moving back and forth and twirling around, fast forward I exit my trance and see Tala walking out of the forest the morning after with completely empty candle holders. I see that memory hundreds of times, she was constantly practicing the attunement ritual all night every night, but I’d still see memories of her walking around during the day casting spells and training her blade. She looks so tired.

I understand now, a little while after mom died they began placing this weight on her shoulders. The curse of expectations. Everything since then was leading to this moment that would start the rest of her life.

“Talabrina, look at me. You are not a failure. If mother were here she wouldn’t be disappointed in you, she’d laugh and say “Well what does she know, she’s just a sword.” None of us think any less of you.”

She grasps the sides of my cloak and pushes her face into my chest as she finally loses the battle of holding back her grief. “I’m so sorry, brother.” She lets out with a choked voice. I wrap her up in a hug.

“What are you sorry for, everything’s gunna be okay sis.” I reply with a small chuckle.

“No you don’t understand Ignis! If I’m not the heir, then they’re going to make you go through the same hell I’ve been living everyday since she died! In the beginning I wanted to be worthy to carry on mothers legacy, but as more and more time passed and I caught glimpses of you smiling and laughing, you were so happy when you got your first spellbook…. I knew that I had to be worthy. Because, if I wasn’t then…. then you’d….” She can’t finish her sentence as she starts wailing.

I rubbed the back of her head to try and comfort her, but in my mind I knew she was right. As the rest of the memories streamed in there were less and less memories of happy sword fights with friends, climbing trees, the kind mentor pointing out errors in my spellbook, training my bladesong with father. My life became more rigid and structured, practicing the attunement ritual all night, meeting with high ranking figures in the religion, getting dragged into political nonsense as a pawn. I could barely find time to catch up with my friends or study magic. Being strong armed into a cleric lifestyle by night and training my bladesong while taking on more responsibilities of the son of a noble.

The human side of me says this is just growing up, but now that I’ve got my memories I feel so much resentment. Since my sister wasn’t worthy they made sure to go twice as hard on me, but I was only 30 years old! Sure I was physically grown, but none of my friends started taking on responsibilities until they were in their late 70s! There was one bright side though. After the first few years Tala looked much happier.

Then the final memory plays. I'm sitting at a desk working on scribing the Shadow Blade spell into my spellbook when I feel dizzy and my chest hurts. I start feeling a cold numbness spread through my body as I collapse and my forehead slams into my spellbook. Suddenly I’m flying up into the air looking at my own body and everything goes black.

My eyes snap open and I’m in a carriage with my head leaning against the wall. “Not many get to say they slept in a tent with two princesses all night and got personally carried into the royal carriage with them as well. Honestly quite bold of you to pull a stunt like that.”

“Ah, I apologize Princess. Did Her Grace not explain what was going on?” I respond with a soft voice.

Celestia looks at me suspiciously, “No, she mentioned that she had done an experiment with some new dream magic. Are you feeling okay?” She then looks at Luna, who’s sat next to me.

“I used his dreams to recall and replay the memories from his original life as Ignis. I didn’t expect it to take so long though. I do agree though, are you well?”

“I feel fine. Why? Is there something wrong with me?” As I ask I begin looking for a mirror that doesn’t exist.

Celestia responds, “You just aren’t speaking how I’d expect you to. I think that was the first non-hostile thing you’ve said to me since you found out I prohibited you from learning Equestrian magic.”

“Oh, I’m supremely frustrated at your lack of trust, but I still have basic respect and decorum.”

“The past 3 days you haven’t had either of those. Your tone is even softer than it used to be.”

“Well, I learned etiquette from my attendant and had plenty of practice from following my father to events. Noble life was quite boring.”

Both of them respond at the same time, quite surprised, “You were a noble?!”

I respond, “Yes, I was the successor of the Natsume family. Natsume meaning Summer Dreams. The family line on my fathers side presided over Summer for several generations, but when he married my mother who was called the Chosen or the Sword Saint for her goddess whose domain was the night. They honored her goddess by changing the family name to Summer Dreams. Luna I thought you knew, you saw the memory where my father had his attendants with him.”

“Oh so you’ll address my sister properly now that you remember your etiquette lessons, but I’m still just “Luna”. Also, you’re right I just didn’t put much thought into it.”

“Just because I’m apparently acting a bit different doesn’t mean I’ve completely changed as a person. You said it yourself, I consider us friends.”

For the first time since our confrontation I see a genuine smile on Celestia’s face. Luna speaks up again looking a little flustered at the sudden declaration, “Now that you’ve fully woken up you should go back onto the top of the lead carriage and help keep lookout. We should be at the summit before I raise the moon tonight.”

“As you command, Your Grace.”

I open the door to the moving carriage and pull myself up before running and jumping onto the carriage in front of this one.

Acrobatics

13 + 8 = 21.

I land on the carriage and promptly sit down before putting my hand over my eyes and slowly scanning the horizon and the sky above.

Perception.

10 + 5 = 15.

Just like the first 2 days, I see nothing but wasteland.

Honestly I’m a bit disappointed with my memories. I thought for sure I’d learn at least a hint as to how I ended up getting my soul snatched and sent to earth.

Oh well, let’s just make it through today and when we wake up tomorrow it’ll be time to play politics. Well I’ll be playing stand there and cut any idiot that tries to pick a fight with Luna. They are the ones playing politics.

Author's Note

I wanted to actually start the summit this chapter, but the memory flashback was longer than expected and this felt like a good place to end. Compared the last few chapters this one is on the shorter side but that's okay.

Wizards revealed the new Wizard changes that are gunna be in the 2024 Players Handbook release in September, and unfortunately they didn't add Bladesinger into the core rules. I don't really care whether it becomes part of the core rules or not, but since in it's not part of the core rules that means it won't be receiving any changes anytime soon.

I'm pretty happy with where the subclass is right now, but all the new features the other subclasses got make Bladesinger feel a little.... lackluster now.

Turns out Ignis' childhood wasn't that traumatic, just strict. I'm not gunna lie I had to rewrite like 2 of those paragraphs probably 10-15 times cause I realized I had no clue what dnd elves do for leisure or fun.... or if they go to school.... or how their noble society interacts with each other...... oh well, hopefully what I decided on isn't too far off from canon :P

Thanks for reading!