Chapter 3. Twilight Lessons
The next morning, I woke up with a headache. "Arrrgh.. Okay, Cider is to be drunken in moderation..Ow!" I said to myself as I rolled out of the couch, stretching myself out to get rid of the kinks in my body. As I looked around, wondering where I was, all of last nights events flooded into my brain. I yawned and stretched once more as memories of a drunk Fluttershy coming on to me plagued my thoughts. I wondered if she was still mad at me..
My answer would come soon as I heard the creaking of bed springs and the clip clopping of hooves, making their way towards the steps. I saw her making her way carefully down the stairs. Her mane was frazzled, a common case of bed head. I could tell she was just as hung over as I was as she used one hoof to slowly rub her temple. "Um, morning fluttershy, did you sleep well?" I asked her as I stood at the base of the steps. "Eeep!" Fluttershy squealed in response and jumped a foot into the air. She flared her wings and flapped them to keep herself suspended, as to not crash back down.
"Oh, it's you. Did you sleep well?" she asked as slowly, she made her way down to the base of the steps. "Yeah, I slept just fine, it's waking up is what's not cool for me." I chuckled softly, trying to hold a conversation. She giggled softly. Fluttershy didn't seem to be mad at me anymore which was great by me. "I woke up with a splitting headache today" she said softly, slowly rubbing her head for emphasis. "Yeah, it's what happens when you drink too much at once. I don't know what you call it here, but on Earth, we call it getting plastered." I explained to her. "I was drinking? Maybe that's why I don't remember anything.." Fluttershy pondered to herself. I let my jaw hang as I stared at her. "You don't remember anything that went down last night?" I asked her, raising an eyebrow.
She shook her head no slowly. "When I drink, I tend to black out, or forget most or even all of the day's events before." she informed me. "A lightweight.. Why am I not surprised?" I muttered to myself quietly. Fluttershy tilted her head slightly to the side, giving her the look of a confused puppy. I smiled and shook my head at her. "Nothing Shy, I'm gonna head up to Twilight's place. She uh, wanted to ask me some questions about Earth." I lied, still not comfortable letting anyone know I was incapable of using magic yet. "Oh, well alright. If you need me, I will be here with Angel and all my other animal friends," Fluttershy said, and on cue, Angel hopped up beside her, looking at me with hard, black, beady, little eyes. I don't know why, but that little bunny gave me a strange feeling. I slowly turned away, and left the house, leaving Fluttershy with her creepy rabbit.
~O~ Twilight's house...
I knocked on the door and waited for a bit. When the door opened, I was greeted not by Twilight Sparkle, but by a small, purple and green...dinosaur thing. "Uh.. Hi, is Twilight Sparkle here?" I asked it, wondering if it could even understand me. It had the same uncertain look on it's face that I had on mine. "Yeah, who are you?" it asked me somewhat rudely. I determined from it's voice it was male, and a young one at that. I also realized by the spade tip of his tail he wasn't any dinosaur, but a dragon. Most likely a baby one from how small he was. "Oh, my name is Mark, she and I met before." I told him. Twilight's voice rang out from within the house. "Spike! Who is it?" she asked. So the little dragon's name was Spike. Pretty cool. "Somepony named...Mark! Do ya know him?" Spike called back. "Yeah, just bring him up to my room!" Twilight shouted down.
"Alright, follow me." Spike motioned with his paw to come in. I wiped my hooves off at the door before stepping in and used a hind hoof to gently kick the door shut behind me. "Spike huh? your name is pretty cool." I said, trying to make conversation. "Oh you think so?" he asked, turning back to me as he led me up the stairs. I nodded honestly as I followed him, careful not to get hit by his swinging tail. "Hehe, thanks! I do my best to be as cool as my name." Spike said, posing quickly, running a paw though his spikes and grinning. I laughed at him and he chuckled too. I felt like me and him would be pretty good friends. As we reached the top of the steps, the little dragon showed me her room. "Alright, just go through there Mark." he told me. "Cool, thanks Spike. See ya later some time. We can hang out." I told him as I stepped into Twilight's room.
"Hey Twilight Sparkle, you in here?" I called to her. As I looked at the bed, I saw a stack of books by the bed. And next to the books, I saw Twilight standing facing me. "Oh, hey Twilight, I was wondering if you were open to help me with my magic today?" I inquired as I looked around her room, seeing as how it was much like the rest of the library and her house, from what I've seen; cluttered with books and research papers. "Um, I would love to, but I am kinda busy cleaning up all these books. Maybe if you give me a hand, I could get done quicker!" she suggested. I smiled and nodded, looking around the room. "Alright, what do you want me to do first?" I asked her, ready to help. She looked around her room, then at me, then once more at her room. "Um, how about you help Spike clean the living room and then when I finish up here, you can help both of us in the kitchen. Afterwards, you and I can practice magic up here! Sound like a plan?" She asked. I nodded again and left her room. I understood from being in a house with my mom and sister, girls had things in their room they didn't want people seeing. And from experience, I am comfortable not knowing.
When I saw Spike, he was on a ladder, putting a book on a high shelf far across the room. As he stretched to put the book up, he was standing on his tip toes. "Hey Spike, be careful!" I called out to him. The young dragon looked over at his shoulder at me and shrugged. "I got it, I've done this a million times before." he told me. I watched with uncertainty as he jumped up and pushed the book into place. When he landed safely on the bar, I breathed a sigh of relief. "See, no problem-Woaaah!" Spike yelled as he accidentally missed the second step and slipped off. I immediately ran forward, desperate to try and catch him. Everything else was a blur, I was focused in on spike, it felt like forever, time seemed to move in slow motion. But I could tell I was moving at a very fast pace, seeing as how everything else was blurring past me. Every sense in me was honed in on the falling Spike, just as he was about 5 feet from crashing to the floor, I finally got beneath him, catching him in time on my back.
"Spike, you okay?!" I asked him as he sat up on my back, looking dazed. "Wha?.. Oh, yeah, thanks Mark, you caught me! How did you get all the way over here so fast?" He asked me as he climbed off of me. I looked at him with a bit of confusion. "What do you mean? It was only a few feet, right?" I looked back to confirm my statement. It was only a few feet...Right? When I looked back, I saw how far it really was from here to the door. I saw it was more than about 5 yards away. I'm pretty sure I couldn't have run that fast if I tried my hardest. Maybe it was just the sheer equine power that made me able to go that fast? It was Spike's voice that knocked me out of thought. "Either way, you saved me. Thanks again!" he said. I shrugged and smiled at him. "It was no problem. Now, Twilight wanted me to help you out in here, is there anything you want me to do?" I asked, turning to face him.
"Uh, yeah! Could you hold the ladder steady when I put the books up on a high shelf? That would help out a lot." Spike told me. "Sure, no problem. My weight should hold it pretty stable." I said as I took a few steps to stand by the side of the ladder. In a matter of minutes, we had the whole base floor cleaned and we shared a few laughs. "Yeah! So, after they came back to get Applebloom, they all had something wrong with them! I mean, Rainbow Dash couldn't fly straight to save her life! And Pinkie Pie's tongue was so swelled up, she couldn't talk without drowning you in spit! and ya know how Rarity always looks so..perfect? Well she looked like she got beat up by every natural disaster known to pony!And Applejack wouldn't even come up to your ankles! Ha ha, yeah. Twilight's horn was all floppy looking, and Fluttershy..Oh man Fluttershy!" Spike tried to continue the rest of his story, but he started cackling like a mad man. I was in the same state, laughing at their misadventure with a zebra named Zecora, who always spoke in rhyme. "What about Fluttershy?" I managed to ask, close to tears. "Oh yeah! Fluttershy, she sounded like a smooth jazz player, cause her voice was so deep!" Spike said before returning to his fit of laughter.
I tried to picture Fluttershy talking with the voice of Micheal Clark Duncan. You know, the big black guy who played in the green mile? or in the original 2001 version of planet of the apes? Well either way, I pictured his voice on Fluttershy and I simply burst in a roar of laughter. It was then that Twilight Sparkle came downstairs. "I see you two are getting along well. That's nice" Twilight said as she made her way over to us. "Oh yeah, Spike is pretty awesome." I said, holding a hoof over to Spike, who bumped it with a closed fist. "So, what were you two talking about?" Twilight asked, cocking her head as Spike was just now regaining his composure. "Oh, nothing much...Twilight Flopple!" I snickered out, causing Spike to fall over in another round of laughter. "Spike! You told him about the...Zecora incident didn't you?" Twilight asked him sternly. I answered for him, seeing as he was busy trying to pick himself up and let the blood rush to other parts of his body other than his cheeks. "Yeah, he told me."
"Whatever, if you're ready, we can practice in my room. Spike, watch out down here when you stop...that." Twilight was referring to the weird breathing spike was doing with smoke bellowing from his nostrils. I guess he was close to breathing fire or something with all that black cloud rising from his nose. "As I got upstairs with Twilight, I allowed her to get in front of me and enter her room first. I kicked the door softly shut behind me and sat down, flicking my tail out of the way. "Alright, so as you know, Unicorn's use magic." Twilight stared. "Yeah, but I need to learn how to tap into it." I pointed out. "Alright, well let's start small. Do you see that piece of paper over there? Twilight nodded her head over towards a lone blank sheet of paper in the corner of her room. "Yeah? What about it?" I inquired. "Try to use magic to pick it up. Just relax your mind and then focus on your energy, try to center it on your horn and then concentrate on that paper and levitate it to my bed." Twilight instructed me. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, trying to concentrate.
At first, I felt nothing, but as I continued to try to focus on my energy, I felt it! I really hate braggers, and I hate bragging myself, but I could feel so much energy, just waiting to be released. Which was strange because, at that moment, I felt so calm.. I did everything I could to try and sum that energy up into my horn. "Okay Twi', all of my energy I think I directed it to my horn." I told her. "Great! Now, just focus on that paper." She told me again. So I put my total concentration on that little sheet of paper, just to at least get it to shift a bit. Suddenly, a navy blue aura surrounded my horn, with little (Dare I say the dreadful word?) ...Sparkles.. (Curse you Twilight Saga! Why must you ruin an already pansy-like word?!") Then that paper started to glow the same color. "Hey I think I got it!" I said with happiness. Just as I was about to lift it.. BAWUMPH! The paper exploded. cinders and ash were all that was left in it's place. "Twilight! What happened? Is that normal?!" I asked, totally freaked out. "No, I've never seen that happen before.. I'm glad I decided to have you lift the paper instead of me though" She said, adding a small nervous chuckle.