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“…But then, the door closed behind me!”
Felix gasped. “Oh no! Who closed it?”
Moony shook her head. “No, it was just made so it closed on its own.”
“Oh.”
“But it also automatically locked itself!”
“Oh no!”
“Yeah! So I was trapped, in a room with no other exits, in a hidden tunnel under the library… and noone knew I was there.”
Felix leaned forward towards Moonstone with eyes wide and fearful, his claws clenching and unclenching in front of him. His ears kept flicking, and he intermittently slicked them back and raised them to better hear the story.
They were both sitting in the castle’s play room, laying on the mat and playing with Moonstone’s newest toys; two action figures of Wondermare and the Green Giant, alongside some of her older ones. Or at least, they were supposed to; Moonstone had been too excited to tell Felix what had happened on her trip for them to actually do any playing.
“And it wasn’t even just one room –it was an entire apartment. With a small kitchen filled with cans, and a library that had giant books and –” She leaned in closer so she could whisper. “–a bedroom. With a skeleton in it.”
Felix claws shot up to his muzzle, and he stared fearfully into Moony’s serious eyes. She nodded at his reaction.
“Yeah, that’s how I felt too… I didn’t stay in there once I realised.”
“That’s horrifying,” Felix managed to whisper back.
“Yeah, it was a little scary.” She shook her head, as if to dislodge the memory. “But anyway, further into the apartment was a treasure room. Filled with gold and gems and paintings and statues and, and– it was huge!”
Since the story had gone back to being exciting, Felix leaned forward again.
“So I was trying to figure out how to get out, right? I thought I could find something to break the door with, but the statues were too heavy and everything else was too small to do any good. So I, well…” She leaned in again to whisper. Felix steeled himself for what new horror she’d tell.
“…I thought I could use one of the giant books to hit it with.” Felix felt his eyes widen, and he quickly looked around and glanced out into the corridor to make sure Twilight didn’t hear that.
“Mama Twi was okay with it when I told her, but she was scared at the time, so I don’t think she was hearing what I was saying. I’m not gonna say it again near her,” Moony whispered. Felix nodded, and mimed zipping his lips shut. He prefered Moony ungrounded.
“But when I went to the library I found something else! It’s…” Moony trailed off. Felix tilted his head as her ears twitched and she glanced up towards the ceiling. She bit her lip, and looked away, hooves scraping lightly against the carpet beneath them.
Felix was just about to ask her what was wrong, when she abruptly continued. “A- a book. It was a book on how to write spells into gems.” She swallowed, and then smiled at him again. “Like how the light gems here work? But a lot more complex.” Her eyes brightened again, and she slammed her hooves into the ground. “Wait! I forgot to show you before the story! Wait, wait–”
She jumped up and rushed over to the wall, knocking over the Wondermare figure in her haste. She headed towards the light gems hanging there; a fixture with a strand of several gems, each emitting a bright white glow. She reared up, and clamped her teeth around the bottom-most one. Felix didn’t have time to warn her, before she yanked it off of the strand; it sputtered and went out, the gem too small to store magic as well as keeping a light enchantment in it.
She trotted back over proudly, carrying the gem in her teeth carefully. Once she stood in front of him, she spat it out into her hooves.
“Look!” she said, body vibrating with excitement, as she put the gem up to her forehead. Her horn lit up –Felix scrambled away so he wasn’t right in the blast zone. But instead of lightning or explosions… the gem lit up. It shone brightly, matching Moonstone’s grin as she held it to her horn, feeding its written spell enough magic to activate.
“The book showed how to write spells in gems –like these!” She removed it and held it out for Felix to inspect. “I can’t control my magic, but these are made for controlling magic; all I gotta do is put them close enough to my horn so the magic doesn’t do anything else before it enters the gem.”
Felix looked at the gem; it was colourless and almost perfectly clear, except for an area of cloudiness in the center. “That’s so cool. How does it work?” He looked up again. “And how did that help you get out?”
“Oh, the book had instructions in it! You used this…” She mimed a thin object, about the length of two adult hooves and the width of a pencil. “..tool-thingy –I found several in the library– to make imperfections in the gem. You gotta be really careful and shine a thin light into it to check that it’s angled right and all that. It’s very finicky.”
She sighed. “It took me hours to get it right, but I had a lot of gems to try on in the treasure room.’
“…And how did light help you get out?”
“Oh, the instructions weren’t for light! Well, those existed too, but it wasn’t those I followed. Turns out the door closed ‘cause it was magic, and the book showed me how to make a gem which told it to open again.
She grinned, manically. “And that’s when I got this.” With a flourish, she posed sideways. She lifted her tail to circle around her flank. Or rather, the butterfly-winged gem which now adorned it.
“Your cutie mark, yeah, it’s really cool.” Felix tried to sound excited, but, well… this was the sixth or seventh time today she’d shown it off. His ability to feel genuine happiness over it dwindled after the third time. He quickly changed the subject.
“But that’s interesting! Can you write any spells into a gem?”
Moony pouted at his lack of response, but accepted his change of topic. “Nah. Anything where you gotta like, change stuff midspell, or that’s relying on picturing stuff in yor mind isn’t possible. Like, teleporting. Or levitation where you gotta adjust the force you use as you do it.”
Felix nodded, thoughtfully. He had a thought, but he wasn’t sure if…
“Do you think I could use it?” He asked, looking down on the gem still in his claw. “Since I’m not good at making magic do what I want it to do…?”
“Oh! Yeah, it should work!” She trotted in place in excitement. “Try it, try it!”
“..how?” Felix hesitantly held it up to his horn
“Um… just put it on the tip and, I guess try to not do anything with your magic except fill your horn with it. Like, just use Light.”
Right. Light, the most basic spell which was just making your horn glow by filling it with magic. The easiest spell everyone knew… that he still couldn’t do. It usually did things like turning his horn red for a few minutes or making the fur on his forehead wave like it was blowing in a non-existent wind.
Still, this time might be different thanks to the gem. So he took a breath, put the gem on his horn, felt his magic pour into it and… it lit up. It lit up!
“It works!” he shouted happily. He couldn’t see the gem obviously, but he saw the glow from it lighting up his nose and the floor in front of him. And Moonstone, who skipped around him laughing.
But then she froze, staring at him. “What?” he asked, before he noticed it too. The light on his nose, which previously had been completely white, was now shifting in rainbow hues. He crossed his eyes, trying in vain to see the gemstone.
“It’s not supposed to do that,” Moony said slowly, approaching him carefully. He lowered his head, so she could inspect what was going on. She put a hoof on his shoulder to stabilise herself as she stared intently into the glowing gemstone, her eyes reflecting the shifting rainbow it emitted. From his vantage point, Felix couldn’t see much except Moony’s stomach and side, filling up his vision. It might have been the strange light, but he swore he could see her new mark shimmer slightly as she studied the gem.
Without warning Moonstone neighed in surprise and she hit his claw with as much force as she could, knocking the gem out of his grip and sending it clattering across the floor. He was just able to stop using magic before it did something random now that the gems weren’t there to steer it. But before he could question what she thought she was doing, Moonstone grabbed him around the midriff and threw him over her shoulder. On two legs, she rushed out of the room, skidding across the blank floor as she scrambled into an awkward run.
Seeing as he was thrown over her shoulder, he had the perfect vantage point to see the gemstone. It glowed, brighter and brighter, and then—
The explosion was silent, but Felix felt the force of it on his face for less than a second before Moonstone threw them into the corridor.
They both pressed themselves against the wall, in stunned silence and breathing heavily, listening to the strange creaking sound coming from inside the room. They shared a look.
“Do you think your moms heard?”
“…let’s hope not.”
The creaking had changed into a rumbling now.
“…I’m sorry it didn’t work.”
Felix swallowed. “Yeah.”
There wasn’t much more to say than that on the subject. Felix was a strange mix of disappointed and resigned, but also just a bit indifferent –it wasn’t like he’d spent a long time thinking it would work. It was just a flash of hope and a flash of disappointment, following so quickly after one another he barely had time to register either.
“I’ll just have to learn to control my magic the normal way,” he finally settled on. “I have been getting better, I mean, it’s just going slower than normal.”
“Yeah,” Moony quickly agreed. “Even if it doesn’t do exactly what you want, you’re getting way closer. And you almost never damage anything anymore!”
The rumbling in the room was dying down.
“And it’s great that it works for you at least!” Felix tried to pep himself up again. It was really awesome that it at least worked for her after all. “And I bet you can make even more and better spells in gems than anything that exists now –you have a new cool cutie mark for it after all.” He managed to grin at her.
Moony just smiled shyly back at him.
Once the room had quieted completely, and had stayed quiet for a few minutes, they dared to look inside.
Felix gripped the side of the bottom of the doorway, and peeked into the room. Moonstone did the same over him.
As one, they dropped to the floor and walked into the room. Felix’ legs felt like jelly as he approached the center; eventually collapsing as he sat down hard, staring at the large item in front of him.
His jaw fell open and he barely had the frame of mind to remember to tuck his claws in close to his chest to avoid scratching the floor as he flexed his talons in horror-tinged confusion.
Meanwhile, Moonstone took a step closer. Then another.
Then she threw her hooves up to the heavens, and shouted happily, “GIANT GREEN GIANT!!”
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