章 2102: Chapter 6 -|
Twilight Sparkle mentally reviewed the preventative measures again.
First, deterrence. No reason to fight at all if the thing could be led away.
Some basic illusions to make the town seem smaller, less interesting, and in a different direction than it actually was. More illusions to show something 'neat' back in the direction of the Everfree Forest itself.
She didn't have time to actually set up a spell framework for anything really impressive, but what little weather magic she had was making the town area feel dry and lifeless, the earth magic would project a lifeless and drained soil image, the water magic made the nearby lakes and river feel tainted and brackish to scanning spells and hopefully to a mountain's senses.
And she was already getting some complaints that Rarity was handling. Fluttershy too was being overwhelmed with her animal friends who were confused when everything nearby seemed boring and disgusting.
They would thank her if this worked.
But a good plan had failure options.
The second goal, defense. Hopefully enough for whatever this is to get bored after trying to get into town a few times. Twilight had been working on a magical version of her older brother's Shield cutie mark, but Shining Armor was literally a genius when it came to restrictive spells and shields... she wasn't too confidant it would hold up long.
So... the third, almost last measure: Attack.
She had spent most of her life avoiding conflict when possible, but being pragmatic was a personal trait that encouraged... research.
Her list of last stand spells escalated from containment bubbles and basic magical blasts... up to deliberate biological cascade failures and magical field inversions.
She glanced at her 'assistant', Spike.
The small purple dragon was really more of a little brother even though her magic accidentally hatched him, and if she had any expectation that he would follow demands he would be hiding back home... not following her out here into possible battle.
Dragons didn't have horns or artifacts for spell casting, they relied on automatic casting and breath casting. So he could harden his teeth without a thought to consume gems and magical soil or rocks, but if he wanted to do anything really complicated he had to learn to cast it with his flames as a medium.
And so far, all he had learned was the communication-transfer array, used to send scrolls to Princess Celestia. Then again, he was very, very young. Even compared to a ponies lifespan, he was a child... and his species lived for eons.
He shouldn't be here.
She sighed. The message to Celestia had been sent moments ago when the other ponies realized that 'mountain' sized didn't mean 'large hill'. The 'bearers of the Elements of Harmony' had negotiated (and even fought) with things larger... but not often.
And normally they had... more. More time, more information, examples of past battles, and in cases like this where the landscape itself seemed to have risen up, magical powerhouse backup in some form.
In the end, she didn't force Spike to stay at home and worry about the others.
If they couldn't handle the crisis here and now, he would suffer an identical fate as the rest of the town AND her friends... waiting for a result here on the front-lines or less than two miles away would not really change the situation either way.
She forced her magic to stay stable. This was... more than a bit experimental. The initial method of casting was difficult for most ponies to begin with, as one had to harness emotions to then move magical power into the right forms and direction. Her friends had the artifacts, 'Elements of Harmony', which self-reinforced specific mindsets to make self-enhancement and minor spell casting effortless.
But her cutie mark was something more.
Magic.
Just straight up control of raw power, no need for emotional enhancement or mental manipulation to cast. Those things could add a boost in potential or adaptability to her casting of course, but not needing that crutch had given her an opportunity she would be testing today.
Chain casting.
Small scale tests showed that she could design spells to cast other spells, allowing her to develop a series of minor castings and initiate them all with one matrix, controlling multiple effects like a conductor displaying a symphony.
But that had been four or five small cantrips, cast over hours in a safe environment with her equipment nearby and tracking the results.
Now she had over three hundred and twenty seven small spells, being controlled by seventy two master spells, being conducted by nine commander spells... being cast simultaneously.
She hadn't finished the overlord spell that was supposed to handle this last part, that was supposed to make such works trivial. It had been a secret project for literally years now, and the smaller 'master' and 'commander' frameworks had been her personal works of pride. Without the premade framework, the balancing required constant modifications of all nine spells. In a few cases, whole sections had to be remade on the fly.
She wasn't standing tall because of confidence or pride. These nine commander spells were taking everything she had and more... moving was not an option. Breathing alone was a trial.
A dark inner part of her was hoping this mountain would arrive soon and attack, so she could give up on part of the plan and drop the three commander spells handling the illusion scenario. At least it would hurt less. The other, skeptical side of her nature was considering having the spell feed into itself. A final 'Farewell' if everything was lost.
Rainbow Dash had been collecting clouds from other weather jurisdictions as fast as she could and had been breaking several rules and regulations to collide them together, trying to create a last stand weather phenomenon if needed. Fluttershy was still evacuating the local wildlife, and Applejack was getting the towns-ponies to get out of the battle area... and possible blast range.
Rarity handling the public relation issues with Pinkie Pie was a honest to Celestia lifeline. Bless her ability to socialize, albeit with less pies and parties than Pinkie Pie.
Despite her internal grumbling, having Spike nearby trying to help by wiping the sweat from her brow or organizing the few tools and artifacts she had brought was reassuring on some level. At least she knew where he was.
Twilight flinched as the sixth spell tried to destabilize. If only she had more time. These magical frameworks were initially not the most powerful effects she could create, nor the most efficient or most useful.
But they were quick, they could stack and hopefully cover each other's problems and weaknesses, and at least for a few hours didn't require any binding to magical anchors or physical construction.
She watched the distant tree growing larger, towering over a 'mountain' of wood and plant life twice the size of Ponyville itself roaming ever towards those she cared for.
And despite her pride and careful plans, she would be ecstatic if Princess Celestia made it in time to save the day.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam blinked as they got closer. "Why is there like... hundreds of spells going off? And is that a tornado over the town!?"
Luna also paused, looking at the town. "Oh. Right, should have thought of this." She sent him a mental request and then accepted the grown paper and 'pen' (Wood branch with burnt ash inside), writing a message.
She waved a hoof. "They are expecting me and three fillies, maybe with an air balloon or wagon. Not a moving house or a timberwolf." Her horn glowed purple, making the letter vanish in a dim flash. "Twilight has a tendency to overreact to minor things to begin with, seeing a credible threat approach might have set her off."
He flinched. Thankfully Mai herself wasn't that interested in much more right now than meandering forward, so the house itself didn't shudder violently or anything. "Didn't Twilight fight and DEFEAT an evil king made of smoke and curses that required you and your sister to banish in the past?"
Luna waved it off. "Special circumstances. And Celestia has been working hard to help Twilight grow, so... yes, special situation and all that."
Adam looked back at the massive web of magic, that seemed to grow and modify itself in real time as they approached. "Did those special circumstances involve casting what seems to be a massive group spell solo? Because this thing is starting to mutate upwards."
Luna blinked... and her eyes and body glowed with a dim darkness, gazing into the distance. "Oh. Ohhh. That is clever. And dangerous. And it is going to become sentient and merge with that super-storm in a few minutes." She looked back at Adam. "Be right back."
As her body faded into mist that rapidly approached the town, Adam VERY quickly gave Mai a list of instructions. And prepared 'Conversion' and enabled 'Growth'. And had his Golden Garden synchronize his abilities with Squishy and Mai to share resources and burdens. And had Mai begin digging down into the soil, absorbing magic and rushing it into Mai's skin and defenses.
He was NOT whimpering, thank you very much.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Pinkie Pie watched her friend struggle with the magical contraption she was reinforcing. "Twilight. Twilight. Twilight."
As expected, her brilliant strategy paid off. After a few minutes. Or hours. "WHAT!?"
Twilight's eyes were glowing in strange patterns, her mane floating, her horn too bright to see directly. Magic rolled over her as a cloak and soaked into the soil.
Pinkie nodded. "I have a question."
The unicorn's eye twitched. "I... augh, Pinkie, I. am. busy."
She nodded. "I know, but it is important."
Twilight strained her throat. Thankfully some... modifications... to the spell group had lowered her stress and concentration requirements. Slightly. "WHAT THEN!? I REALLY need to focus."
Pinkie Pie moved to the side slightly. "Well, two things I guess. First, can you fire that spell in a different direction? I think it might hurt Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom if you exploditude that way."
The slight panic did NOT help when she felt her lack of concentration allow several parts of her spell to conflict with other sections. "WHAT!? Why didn't you TELL me the girls were nearby?"
Pinkie Pie blinked. "I didn't know. I just assumed that since Princess Luna is coming out of that mountain's mouth, the girls would be in the same general area." She ignored the increasingly shocked and horrified mage as she moved on. "Now, I need to know what kind of 'Welcome to Ponyville' cake to make for a mountain. And how large."
Twilight ignored her friend ('I mean, Sugarcube Corner has limited oven space') and frantically tried to dismantle the self-reinforcing spell matrix that was attempting to collect the weather magic growing in the storm Rainbow Dash had collected.
When Princess Luna arrived, she hadn't STOPPED it, but at least the power was in a sort of stable loop of twisting concepts and emotion. "Princess, I am... ugh, what the hay. I am so sorry. But I need... This spell wasn't meant to be stopped and it wasn't meant to be disabled. It was supposed to operate even if we ended up failing to save the town to protect the nation as a whole."
Her body felt another wave of stinging as something mutated in the matrix in a REALLY bad way. "I need help."
Princess Luna nodded. "Let me get Scootaloo's house to eat it."
Pinkie Pie squealed! "I can put a big candle on it! That counts as cake, right? I don't have enough eggs otherwise."
Twilight twitched as she moved more components of her ever growing magical bomb. Too focused and too stressed to even comprehend that one of the leaders of her home kingdom was going to feed this doomsday weapon to child's house. She subconsciously WISHED she was too stressed to hear Pinkie Pie debate with said leader about what flavor 'Explosion' counted as when it came to baking.
Friends are important. Do not strangle friends.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Luna faded back into form inside Mai's closest mouth.
Seeing a 'bush' in the corner, she sighed. "Adam."
The bush was covered in thick layers of roots. "No."
Princess Luna held in a chuckle. "Adam, we need you to ask Mai to move closer to town."
And now the roots were covered in some sort of thorn-moss thing, glowing blue. "No."
She rolled her eyes. "We talked to Twilight, she will not smite ye."
The crawling bark paused before a small hole opened in the rapidly growing cocoon. Adam's blue eye glowed. "I can TASTE the magic out there. If anything, it has gotten MORE concentrated, not less."
Luna watched as Mai nodded her heads, making the room shift. Adam was starting to sink into the floor. "We know. She has not lost control of her spell yet, but it is getting close to critical and her ability to fix the situation is limited. Mai needs to eat the framework."
The floor stilled, the small patch of exposed bark quivering. "That... THAT is what she calls 'controlled'!?"
Princess Luna tapped her hoof on the fairly decorative protection layers. "And if ye wish to avoid watching a good section of this area vaporize, ye will get out of there and give a helping hoof." She glanced down. "Claw."
With a heavy, wooden sigh, Adam crawled up out of his protections and began directing Mai towards town. And blinked. "Is that a giant pink birthday candle?"
Luna sighed as well. "Pinkie Pie is treating the entire thing as part of Mai's 'Welcome to Ponyville' celebration. She has a longer name with sillier words, but just go with it for now."
His eyes glowed. "Is... is the candle a spell? How... is it being attached to the top of the hurricane? No. The top of the BOMB!?"
She nodded as the 'clubhouse' began uprooting itself for more marching. "It is impressive what annoyance can inspire a powerful mage to do when a friend will not accept 'no' during a time of crisis."
Poor Twilight Sparkle. Nice 'candle' though.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
The worst part, Twilight thought, was how RIGHT she was.
Pinkie Pie was waving her limbs wildly. "NO, that is TOO left!"
Twilight held back a sigh and shifted the magical explosion more the other direction. The frosting and candle frameworks had actually stabilized the entire mess, with the candle acting as a slow burn release valve and the frosting reinforcing the sides that were most likely to rupture.
It wasn't stable, but the changes (while making everything 'party' themed) was also adding a layer of balance and symmetrical wholeness. As stupid as the ideas were, if things continued to improve at this rate she may be able to relinquish control of the disaster all together.
She felt someone behind her cough. "Miss Twilight Sparkle? Princess Luna informed me that you were waiting for Mai to consume the spell matrix."
The voice was... deep. It vibrated the air in strange ways, with faint sounds of the wood instruments. "I can't move. Not much. Talk Pinkie."
A pink blur swept past her vision to the pony behind her. "Hi! Oh Gosh, are you new to town too!?"
His voice chuckled. "Good morning, Pinkie Pie. Yes, I came to town with Mai here." Seriously, his voice was soothing. If only she wasn't so busy. "Are you the one who suggested the candles?"
Pinkie was bouncy as always. "Yep yep yep! But something is making the magic work much better than it should. Is it close to a special day for your clubhouse?"
There was a pause. "Well... I suppose she was created less than 24 hours ago..."
Pinkie gasped! "It's her first birthday!? No wonder the frosting turned out so good!"
Twilight Sparkle grumbled inside. Against her own desires, that was likely true. Magic was an emotional power, and on special occasions or dates could easily modify existing spells or events and had been documented doing so for years. She had wasted weeks trying to disprove the theory, believing that the ponies in the area were affecting the spells subconsciously... and had to admit failure.
Changing the 'frosting' to say 'Happy Birthday Mai' reduced the spell load by eight percent.
What the hay.
Knowing the theme that this raw power wanted made the act of stabilization far more attainable. A 'plate', more 'candles', little frosting 'flowers', more and more the explosion (while still producing oceans of nearly-uncontrolled power) calmed into a decorative foodstuff.
She wanted to kick something. Stuff like this was the hardest part of her 'Magic' cutie mark. It was why she was forced to leave the castle in the first place and meet new ponies.
Emotions, relationships, and self realization could drastically modify and change magic and power in general. It wasn't so far gone that free will was lost, but random events tend to push toward certain outcomes based on the emotional value of said outcome... and lots of other fiddly bits.
Such as this case: In an effort to find their lost little ones, they accidentally created a mountain sized cake for a literal moving mountain. A mountain named Mai, in fact.
If she was understanding Princess Luna's plan correctly, this 'treat' would count as a magical boost for the 'clubhouse' while saving everyone a lot of trouble. And explosions.
Inside she felt the urge to blame Pinkie Pie for this somehow, but that pony was so connected to her inner emotions and power that it was hard to tell who was guiding who.
Long term planning for the energetic girl was either impossible to do or done automatically by the power that guides her.
She felt a slight nudge, forcing her to focus. "Are you ready for Mai to start consuming?"
Mmm that voice though.
Twilight took a deep, calming breath. "Right. Tell her to go slowly."
Darkness fell.
Rocks only a few feet over her skull exposed a... a whole building size construction of wood, stone, vines, and raw magic. And it kept stretching, reaching upwards into the sky.
It made no sound, but the shear amount of mass alone made the world vibrate as it passed her fragile and small form.
Scale... was hard to judge sometimes. And Mai was... very big.
Thankfully, as she felt a literally bite sink into her construct, it was far easier to balance a disaster like this than control it.
The voice seemed amused. "Mai says to thank you. It is delicious."
Well. As long as the mountain likes the taste, whatever.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam felt pretty darn optimistic now.
He was compressed into near-pony size wolf-form (Shouldn't sit on weak furniture due to density, but that would be unlikely to cause issue), NOT being exploded by Twilight or her magical friends, and could feel Mai enjoying a strawberry flavored recursive magical matrix implosion.
Rainbow Dash and the other ponies not stabilizing a category OMG hurricane of magic and weather were giving him space (or ignoring him) while flustering over the three fillies that finally exited Mai.
Luna moved to sit next to him. Well, they were resting on their haunches, but it was basically sitting. "Everything proceeding well?"
He nodded. "It will be another day before I can improve my power to handle the magic myself, but Mai has been using the 'Transfer' jaws to collect that power and move it into the 'Conversion' umbrella tree. I'm surprised at how well this magic/plant combination is handling the situation. Always worked with metal before."
The Alicorn hummed. "Nature magic, we would say, is the core of our power here. Magic is crafted by the cycle of life and produced by the plants, we creatures adapted to it and gained the ability to control and produce it ourselves."
She waved a hoof at the delicate crowns the other ponies wore. "Those artifacts, for example, are not just magically powerful. They came from an actual tree, one still living in the Everfree Forest. Well, more a conceptual structure than a tree. It was able to choose champions and distribute the 'fruits' of its power."
He blinked. "Wait, those look like metal though."
She shook her mane. "Neigh, they are actual living things. There are still a few existences like the Tree of Harmony in this world, and none provide gifts that are as simple as metalwork and magical spells."
He looked at the unconcerned leader. "Are... are you sure you should be telling me of this? Sounds a bit important to just give out to a stranger."
Her laughter sounded soft. "If ye could injure or control the Tree of Harmony, none we know of could stop you. It remains in the forest because it desires to... it controls that entire forest simply by existing. It would allow ponies to visit if it willed so... and if it allows you to exist after you dare attempt to harm it, then you are blessed. Those five elements the girls wear, powerful enough to lock away royalty or change existence, they are but a small fruit of that power."
Right. Leave the tree alone.
Luna glanced at his expression and gave a small smile. "It was many years ago, but my sister and I were chosen by that power. We have tried to use it wisely."
He looked up at the cake being slowly consumed. "And this death cake? I see Twilight is using her artifact even now on it."
Her eyes sparkled like midnight. "Trees have a sense of humor too, ye know. And your large friend was born from the raw power in that same forest... to a certain point of view, your daughter was formed with that tree's consent."
He blinked. "She ate a good section OF that forest."
She nodded. "Nature has a certain rhythm of consumption and production. She ate a forest and grew into a forest." Luna blinked. "Hmm. A newborn would also draw sustenance from her mother. This is just a far more external method we suppose."
Adam blanked. "So. I may have made a child with a forest built by a magical tree. And then was 'born' from it." Wasn't there a song about this?
She shrugged. "Magic. Try not to think too much about it and everything will get better. Especially after something sweet."
He looked over at Pinkie Pie trying to convinced the other adults that they should throw a 'You are grounded' party for the three. All the memories he had of this world included how good her party food was, and he WAS scheduled for a 'Welcome to Ponyville' celebration.
He glanced at the princess. "Would you be able to join us for the party later? Not sure which one I will end up going to, but at lest one of them should work."
Luna gave a smile before sighing. "We would love to, but there is work to be done. We had to leave things behind to help search for the girls."
Adam looked back at Twilight, her body shivering with power. "Well, I will be here for at least a few days if not longer just to heal my soul from my journey. I'll talk with Twilight about housing options when she gets to a stopping point... if nothing else, Mai can make a room for me. If you have time, you can stop by and we could talk more?"
The princess smiled. "A plan, then."
As she faded into mist, returning towards the palace likely, he waited behind the purple pony who was being cared for by a dragon, likely Spike.
If his 'mom' is Twilight, would he be Spike Sparkle? Wait, Twilight's mom was... uh. Right, Twilight Velvet. Her dad was Night Light... did they not have family names? But the Apple Clan had all kinds of apple related names. Mostly.
Was this a translation error? He NEEDED to upgrade his magical communication methods. Part of the issue was that the sounds made were combined with subtle ear and even tail motions. He was learning it all, but what if he met a species with like no legs or eyes or something?
If nothing else, he was developing a DEEP hatred for how complicated non-English non-bipedal languages could be.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
With a gasp, Twilight Sparkle collapsed to the ground, her pants heavy and her mind throbbing.
That rich voice behind her twinged with worry. "Whoa! Are you alright!?"
She gave a weak nod, head still resting on the grass. The house eating the spell had reduced the tension and difficulty of upholding the spell significantly... but not enough to make holding it together for so long simple.
She heard the soft hoof-steps as the voice moved forward. "Well... Can't leave you here on the ground. Especially since Pinkie Pie will likely show up at some point to continue Mai's birthday party."
Her idle thoughts paused as the hoof... no, claw. As the paw with razor sharp, black claws moved in front of her face. Then she felt warm... vines? Tentacles of some sort. They wrapped around her torso, more gently than expected.
And she was lifted. Like a child.
At least she could see her conversation partner.
Mind still out of it, she absently analyzed her neighbor. It vaguely was shaped like a Timberwolf, if said wolf was created by somepony who just kept adding more branches, moss, and vines. Near solid black, with bright blue moss-fur and using several glowing blue vines to hold her in the air.
His face was wolf shaped but the expression was more dog-like, with bright blue eyes that had flames behind them.
And before she could adapt to the unexpected companion, she was lowered onto his wide back, her hooves hanging over his sides as she fell into the softest moss she had ever felt, vines holding her tight. "Comfortable?"
Mmm yes. That voice was still chocolate to her ears, and it made his body rumble in relaxing ways.
She tried to convince herself that the only reason she wasn't complaining and walking away was due to how tired she was and how long she had been casting magic, even as she nuzzled his shoulder. Luna brought him, he couldn't be that bad, right?
Then again, anyone with a voice that sinfully delicious was probably naughty in some way. Bad. Not naughty.
She... she was going to blame this on the heavy magic exhaustion. "I want it noted if anyone asked that I protested being carried."
His chuckle vibrated heavily. "Noted. Where should I take you to rest?"
"Um... Mr. Wolf sir?"
Oh. Spike. Right. "Spike, Princess Luna asked... uh, what was your name again?"
His grin was only barely visible as her head nuzzled... uh. Looked over. Right. As her head looked over his shoulder. "You can call me Adam. And Luna was the one who directed me to this town. Spike, right? Can you lead me to where Miss Sparkle can get some rest?"
She ignored her assistants comments as she grumbled. "I'm Twilight. Miss Sparkle sounds weird."
The rest of her words rambled off as the vines holding her to his soft back gently massaged her spine. That felt... too good.
She was asleep in minutes.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Spike's odd expressions eventually tipped Adam off to something being wrong with his behavior.
He was basically THIS close to fondling the student of the God of Sunlight.
What. The. Hell.
Some quick mental checks again, powers set to 'Recovery' and 'Growth'. Staying in 'Research' to help learn local language faster had once again been a bad idea.
Turns out, holding a magical pony... no, THE magical pony to your back could cause magic saturation. Again. Especially because Twilight was just finishing a massive spell work, her body soaked with power and her tired brain lacking most moral restraints.
Basically, he was lightly 'magic drunk' again.
A quick flush to Mai had him 'sober', but just in case he set up a magical one way valve of sorts, shoving any magic he touched or soaked in to funnel away to the massive clubhouse being gently shuffled off towards Applejack's farm.
Was he always a flirt? Huh. Maybe. He had flirted with both Narwhal and Dragon, but those two were close to sisters with strange sexual tension. Did that count as being generally flirtatious? The girls he healed at the parahuman asylum didn't count likely, being a hero made many people want to be a bit more 'friendly'.
Both beings heavy with magic so far however had made him mentally jump straight over the 'Hi! how are you?' stage into the 'How YOU doin' mood.
It might be a different way his body was trying to use to get magic though. The first attempt was to eat everything... and ended up 'birthing' Mai. THIS attempt stopped before any real hanky-panky got going. Mostly.
He carefully moved his 'helper tentacles' to safer locations on Twilight. No one noticed them start to wander, right? And they were probably still in G rated locations. And were stopped before anything too adult could occur.
Note to self: Show them to Narwhal. Mmm.
Adam sighed as he followed the still talking small purple dragon. The green plates on his body were not as jarring as they were in the cartoon, he idly noted. And he had not exactly paid much attention to the conversation so far... Squishy?
She poked him.
Ah. So nothing too important.
The town was filled with ponies of various types, though even his bizarre species didn't get too many looks considering a mountain with wolf-skull-faces was hanging over the town like a heavy cloud.
As they moved in what felt like a wandering fashion, Adam considered his mental emotional jumps recently.
It hadn't even been a week so far, and he realized how much he was missing both Narwhal AND Dragon. Even if he wanted to go home, he had to wait longer... and if he didn't take the time to jump to a new realm and get some temporal options, they would be waiting days instead of seconds, and likely worried sick.
Still, if he got lucky he could get enough time manipulation spells here to just head straight back and work up his nerve to do some REAL exploration through the multiverse later. He missed his cuddle-bunny.
Adam caught himself hugging Twilight on his back before he carefully readjusted his grips. Why were the ponies showing up on his attractiveness meter anyway? Was it due to his new soul? Maybe. He had no horse-related opinions back in Worm, anyway. Maybe it was the raw power.
Magic was pure potential, and Luna and Twilight both radiated the stuff.
As he worked his way through the streets he considered how odd it was that the local ponies would see him, tense up, recognize Twilight, relax, see she was bound, tense up, then see that Spike was leading him, and calm down again.
That had to be stressful. His well wishes went out to them.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Twilight blearily woke as she felt her body being shifted from the best mattress ever. "No. Noooo." She gripped her pillow harder. "Don wanna."
She could vaguely hear Spike snicker. "Twilight, you got to get in bed."
She nuzzled her mattress. "Goway."
Her body froze when the mattress chuckled in a rich, deep thrum. "As honored as I am to be your noble steed" And her face went atomic blush. Who just SAYS something like that!? "It is time for you to get some sleep in a real bed."
Her eyes widened. She was... right. Riding him. Not that way, but like... like getting a pony-back ride. And she barely knew anything about they guy except his voice sounded like sugar and sex and his back was sinfully soft. And that his vines were tough, flexible, and able to rub her back and neck and... and... oh my Celestia, kill me now.
"I'm not here. in fact, no one is here and everypony saw nothing."
Spike, not quite catching the mood, was confused. "But Twilight, lots of ponies saw you when Adam carried you home."
And... her mind was blank again. Raw embarrassment cashed a check her mind couldn't handle. Absently, she felt those warm thick vines moving her into a far more familiar bed than the moss covered heaven she had been riding on.
Ignoring everything else, she wrapped herself up like a wheat burrito with covers. Today didn't happen.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam gently closed the door to Twilight's room, and followed Spike, the child still confused. "I'm sorry Adam, I don't know whats gotten into her. Thank you for helping me get her home, I couldn't lift her myself and it was a long walk."
He grinned at the wolf. There had been tension between the two for a while due to him being a massive thing with huge teeth, but most larger Dragons were the same so Spike got over it quickly after seeing how easy going the 'timberwolf' was.
Adam nodded. "I am impressed with the design of the place. Why is this the only house made from a living plant?"
Spike led down towards the kitchen. "Twilight told me once. Said that raw, unprocessed magic is hard on advanced training and research for most ponies. Can make even normal spells go weird or fail. So places like Ponyville that are too close to the Everfree Forest have low populations. Big cities like Hoofington, Manehattan, or Appleoosa have enough ponies living in one spot to filter the magic into types more easily absorbed and used by other creatures."
He waved a claw at the living tree the library was built in. "This library holds magical books, and needs stable energies to prevent damage. The tree naturally filters the wild magic into more basic and pure plant magic, which helps preserve the plant based book materials."
He saw Adam's expression and shrugged. "If you spend enough time around Twilight you pick up stuff. Want something to drink?"
Adam took a glass of water and glanced into the main room, the walls covered in literature. "Any rules about reading here?"
Spike sighed. "There are spells that prevent the more advanced stuff from being borrowed until you pass certain levels of understanding. Other than that, this stuff is mostly research related books. Dry, hard to understand, and between you and me, boring."
Adam watched Spike open a small drawer and pull out an honestly absurd sized green gem. And take a bite out of it, as the soft sounds of grinding filled the room. He swallowed. "Twilight has a thing for learning the more practical side of stuff, so all the fiction, societal, or romantic stuff was eventually stored away to make room for more 'useful' documents that record legends or how to inflate radishes or whatever."
Spike noticed that he was being watched as he munched on another gem. "Uh... don't tell her. I'm not supposed to snack like this, but that whole 'we are going to die' thing made us miss lunch."
Adam nodded. "No problem. It would be fine for me to read in the other room then?"
Spike shrugged. The emotional roller-coaster he went through this morning made him have zero concerns about anything right now. "Go for it, but if you can't remember where you got something just leave it in a pile rather than put it in the wrong place. Twilight can't STAND that."
Adam turned to the walls of raw information, a gleam in his crystalline eyes. Finally, some data to work with.
He swapped to 'Research' and 'Growth' and got started.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
It had been hinted more than a few times, but the world of 'My Little Pony' was a land of druid magic, or nature magic first and foremost. It was likely the reason that his experiment with making Flame and Null Metal here could only make a liquid rather than form into a solid.
His vines were multiplying and moving in layers as book after book was pulled, scanned with 'Research', stored in his memories, and returned. Every row was being read book by book, all shelves providing one book so that multiple hovered before his powers.
Actual understanding? Not much.
No point trying, really.
The few 'beginner' references he found required certain organs, real or metaphysical, that would collect the raw power the body absorbed from nature into streams that would become purified to the point where the pony could control it. Without those parts, he would just make himself literally 'drunk on power' again.
'Purified', by the way, did not mean 'clean' or anything similar. Magic without any effects or natures was defined as 'Neutral Magic' here, and could be easily absorbed by anyone but still had to be processed.
Basically, every pony had a filter, a natural tendency towards certain types of magic. 'Purifying' it meant tainting it to match the type of power you could control the best.
So the bodies acted like magical drains or antennas, the magical circuits acted as processing centers that collected and transformed that mana into a usable form, then the actual casting was done through the hoofs, horns, wings, or body. Hooves were a global ability, allowing ponies to 'hold' things or turn knobs or whatever. The other abilities were handled by Unicorns, Pegasi, or Earth Ponies.
Or like... all the above if you were an Alicorn.
Anyway, he needed scans and examples of as many creatures as possible before risking his own body trying to construct that circulatory system himself. And he would likely need a new power charge too, one aimed toward a purely magical ability aside from 'Growth'.
Not because he needed the magical stability that would cause, although that was a nice bonus. But he had been discussing the language issue with Squishy and she came up with a power that could not only address the current problems but reduce issues when understanding abilities in the future as well.
It sounded corny though.
He sighed as the most recent book turned out (AGAIN) to be much larger inside than outside.
Every time he ran across one of these 'thin' books he grew nervous. They looked 10 pages long and had thousands of chapters inside. Thankfully, that meant that these 'Huge' books were actually the smallest in the library, as the author didn't feel the need to magically compress the stupid things.
The night passed slowly, what ponies likely to visit being busy with Pinkie Pie as she threw a party for a walking land feature.
And after waving Spike off to sleep, Adam read into the night.
There were worse ways to spend the time.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
As the dozens of blue glowing vines continued to pull books and turn pages, Adam was lounging on Twilight's couch.
It was a nice couch, and unsurprisingly enchanted like everything else in this tree/house/library/lab.
His eye glanced at the closest window, the other still scanning pages. Daylight was coming, but a new charge was still hours away.
Not only were these books much larger than expected, but he was taking the time to scan the magic detected on their bodies as well. Not every book had the same set of preservation, expansion, and self repair as the others.
Many were written by... hoof? Well, without a printing press anyway. If one tracked it, you could tell when they were created by the types of spells used to preserve the finished product. Roughly.
Right now, he wasn't bothering to actually process the contents. This was a straight 'Convert: Memory to Data' operation going on. 'Research' would be used with more depth later to actually try and understand stuff.
Twilight's owl showed up a few hours ago, but 'Owlowiscious' had calmed down after Adam explained what was going on. As a 'Normal' animal of this world, the owl could understand the common language easily enough but was unable to speak 'pony' or whatever this thing was called.
So... hours of scanning.
The idea that Twilight could actually memorize all this and MORE without powers helping was astounding really. And what few pages he was able to process while scanning implied that magic NOT powered by raw emotion and desire needed a massive amount of mental calculation.
Magic had an opinion of what it wanted to do. With enough emotion or practice, anypony could cast a spell reliably. But if you wanted to do so with an arbitrary spell, and to cast it without mind numbing terror or bliss or hope or whatever, you needed to take the time to fill in all the variables by hoof, as it were.
Example, a spell to shoot lightning. If one trained for years, it could be done on a whim. If it was a desperate situation or if magic itself wanted to attack, it only needed a strong will. And if you just wanted to cast it once for no real reason, you needed to be a goddess of mathematics and memorization, while focusing on fairly complicated frameworks for magic to detect, be convinced to accept parameters, and forced to actually follow through.
Thus if Twilight wanted to cast lightning, it took a lot of calculation, an accurate understanding of one's surroundings, a well of power or a channel of energy to tap into, and a will of steel.
In return for 10 times the work, it returned 100 times the control. She could do stuff with magic that no one had heard of before, more than simply having the right cutie mark as a power up.
On the other hand, or hoof, her analytical mind was bordering on the level of a savant. It was likely the reason she had such issues doing things that required emotions and handling dynamic situations. In fact, attempting to mitigate her flaws in those areas was likely the reason Princess Celestia sent her to this town to 'make friends' in the first place.
He drifted back to the books passing by, before moving on to less boring activities as the scanning continued.
Mai was now over by the Apple farms. That birthday party was ongoing as well, although most of the town had moved INSIDE of Mai after it got dark.
Apparently the purified magic Mai generated was acting like a mild caffeine rush, as none of the guests were acting as tired as they should.
And she as a building was now best friends with Pinkie Pie, as the hyperactive pony was making all kinds of 'suggestions' that had Mai changing more and more of her internal rooms to be more 'festive'.
As such, now there was a cake room. A hollow fake cake filled with plants that looked like more cakes with a table that held Pinkie's latest culinary creation.
It even had a cake themed cooking area for making more cake.
Are these ponies even vegetarians? They seem to live on sugar alone! And they treat apple cider like beer basically.
He watched the wandering ponies moving through and around Mai's various hallways, play rooms, and event areas. It was like a ant farm, without the gross stuff. Like ants.
Adam blinked, seeing some 'rest areas' very... occupied. Alright yeah, that was a bit gross. Not the act itself, but the mess being made due to it. And the 'toys'.
Mia was making sure no kids wandered over to those halls, which was a good idea. Also, homosexuality was either considered no big deal here or apple cider really loosened those social bindings. And a WHOLE list of kinky stuff was also fairly accepted. Or at least, secretly supported.
...And he had invited the Princess of the Night to one such party.
Was this sort of activity normal at a Pinkie Party? Or just ones that happen in a large, shifting house stuffed with pure magic?
Cause HE had been both loopy and a bit sexually charged just from eating that raw magic to begin with.
Yeah, this was probably the magic.
Not that any of the ponies seemed to be complaining. Good dismount.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Twilight awoke late. Her mind was emphatic about that, already giving a dozen lists of things she had planned to do today, didn't do yesterday, had planned over the last few months that were delayed by over 12 hours, and so forth.
With practice ease, she pushed the mental reminders (basic hypnosis, barely a spell), and proceeded to get ready for the day.
And then the memories hit.
Embarrassment flooded her brain, forcing each moment of her slow nuzzling a massive being with a voice of seduction through a crowded town into her mind. It was only nuzzling, right? He had been soft, she hadn't done anything too... improper?
The response from one of her self monitoring spells (Meant to help her remember recent study subjects) made relief wash over her. Who knew her lazy method of keeping track of read books would help assure her that she hadn't been humping a stranger while high on magic? And Spike said that having four ongoing spells so similar was too redundant!
Magic was life, and life liked making more life. Thankfully her years of experience prevented her from going full drunk lust monster, despite handling more power at one time than she had in literally months.
Regretfully, it hadn't stopped her from frolicking emotionally through those dulcet tones.
Blame the magic overdose. Period.
She went through her routine until she started downstairs towards the kitchen. Her living room was filled with blue tentacles. Warm, pulsing vines. Memories of being held gently by said limbs into soft moss brought a blush forward again.
Huh. Hadn't run into THAT fetish before. Just... great.
Repress.
Walking downstairs fully she noticed Owlowiscious watching over her guest, Spike idling in the kitchen. Adam, on the other hoof, was sprawled on her favorite reading couch, his overly complicated wooden body relaxed as books were being pulled, scanned with one glowing eye, then returned to the shelving.
In the correct order, thankfully.
The rate he was moving was as astounding as was his stillness. Bright blue, glowing vines... rapidly shifting, twisting, and manipulating dozens of objects while his black wooden form with blue moss barely shifted.
Then everything slowed to a stop and she found to bright blue gems focused on her, a lazy smile on his face. "Good morning, Miss Sparkle. I hope you slept well?"
She found herself grateful for the first time about all those high society classes she had been forced to take, allowing her to control her expression even if she could feel lingering embarrassment on her face. "Good morning, Adam. Please, just call me Twilight."
She moved through the mess, vines shifting away from her steps. No reason to bring up sleep, last night, or ANYTHING related to that right now. "Were you able to find what you were looking for?"
Adam snorted, odd to hear from a wolf. "Haven't begun to look yet, this is just me scanning and memorizing all the documentation you have out for purview. I have an ability that will allow me to begin REAL research once I have the information to work with."
As she settled into the near chair, silently congratulating herself for not stuttering, she turned to the one subject most comforting and safe. Research. "You can remember all this even with such a short glance?"
He began moving the vines again, but much slower and keeping the movement from hitting her. "I am not originally a magical creature, Twilight. I have a series of abilities that use a combination of soul manipulation and dimensional shenanigans to gain new powers."
Adam continued, the books moving at ever increasing speeds. "One of my earliest abilities was one that allowed scanning for information, which would easily enough scan a library this size if the books in here were less magical."
He paused, moving a book about theoretical baking forwards. "But things like this, a book made from magic and bread. The scan needs to not only be far more detailed, but things like the smell of certain words and the texture of a baked paragraph, those things need storing as well."
The queue of literature resumed. "That combined with how many of these books are compressed to hold more pages than expected... it has drastically slowed my scanning abilities. And those scans, thanks to another ability, are being stored away inside me for future reference."
Her eyes were so wide. "I. Am. So. Jealous."
He grinned at her. "Based on how impressive I am finding your skills, I'm sure you could do similar."
She shook her head, mane thankfully staying out of her face thanks to the cantrip to have magic act like a headband. "Tried that. Thought storing all memories permanently so I couldn't forget anything... and I accidentally made the spell recursive. Started storing memories of storing memories of storing memories..." She flushed. "Princess Celestia had to fix me. I had stored so much information that I was unable to think straight. She banned me from trying again for another six years or so. Banned all memory manipulation spells, in fact."
Twilight sighed as she shuffled on her chair. "It was the right thing to do, especially as I was still growing as a pony at the time. The mind needs time to settle if one is to grow up safely."
Adam snorted. "I, on contrast, had no choice! Woke up damaged and dying. First act to fix it smashed my powers and mind and soul into a mess. Its mostly fixed now, but my healing ability routinely modifies my mind to help protect me and help me grow."
He shifted, another book passing between the two. "Now I have a couple of mental constructs, Squishy the oldest. Squishy keeps me on track, and if I do something like you did with your spells she will help fix things up. Hopefully will help me if someone takes over by body or mind too."
Twilight blinked. "Is... is that a big concern?"
He sighed, a rich rumble in the room. "In your realm? Not normally. In mine? We had to design political procedures to handle it. And the stronger you get, the more likely SOMEONE will try and make you useful to them, even if they end up using leverage beyond power based control. Kidnapping, brainwashing, assault, so on."
Adam watched the books dancing through the room. "A big part of me visiting is due to my desire to grow stronger at a faster rate. Hopefully by the time I get what I need here, I will know how to return there with the power I need and without time having passed. Or at least, minimizing how much time passes until my return."
Twilight blinked, then thought. A few mental checks brought up some results. "What I know about time manipulation is pretty restricted to outsiders."
He nodded. "Asked Princess Luna about it, we will see how it goes. Worse comes to worse, Squishy thinks there is a another reality nearby that I can get what I need from. I'm mostly just hoping to save time and return sooner by getting it all out of the way while in THIS world."
Their conversation continued, with less and less focus on what Adam was researching and more about arbitrary information about differences between the two Realms. Spike quietly cleaned up the tea Twilight forgot to drink, and ended up providing snacks they forgot to eat.
It was a good morning over all.
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