Darkest Hour CYOA 2.1

While it would come in handy to get some more info about your new assignment, your current officer in charge had a nasty ability of appearing in the most unexpected of places and you dobted that anyone in the castle knew about his or her location.
But at first...
You glanced at the grimoire laying on the table near your bed. Your natural curiosity prevailed over your respect to the grimoire - you simply had to determine how durable it was.
After a couple flares of magical fire and a stab with a knife you decided that it might be used as an improvised shield or a blunt weapon. Only in critical situations, of course.
Now you ahd one more thing to do. You learned that spell years ago and haven't got a chance to use it since your foalhood. Quietly approaching snoring Gust, you charged your horn, smiling maniacally. , as if drawn by some invisible hoof.
It was childish and stupid, but hey, pony must indulge his desires from time to time!
Now, with all your little buisness here concluded, you set off to the local military hospital.
1/2

2/2

Soon you found Rime in one of the medical wards sprawled on her bed and silently staring at the ceiling.
"I guess I shouldn't hope it was enough to deal with your little addiction, huh?" you said instead of greeting.
"Hey, everyone can slip sometimes!"
"Yeah, and you compromised our operation. At least, our participation there. So I said to bid farewell."
"Farewell?" she looked dumbfounded.
"Don't tell me you haven't been informed." you sighed, "Since you got a concussion, our squad is disbanded."
"Oh." her ears fell almost parallel to ground, "Shame."
"Hey, don't worry about it that much. Maybe you and Gust will end up in the same squad again!"
"And what about you?"
"They are reassigning me somewhere else. A common thing for Lunar Magi, but..."
"A bad feeling about it?"
"Sort of." you scrunched, reminiscing the moment you were informed about it. You could not pinpoint it, but something felt odd.
"Anyway," you continued, "Get well soon."
"Yeah, we have a war to win after all." she smirked, "It would be a shame if we capture the Castle of Two Sisters while I will be laying here."
"You have nothing to worry. I doubt there is going to be an assault in the next couple of days." you reassured the unicorn mare.
For the next several seconds you stood in awkward silence, until you decided that it was time for you to leave.
"So, I guess I need to go." you finally spoke up.
"Take care." was Rine's only response. Surprisingly succinct and serious for her.
You left the room in some emotional turmoil. Sure, the strongest thing you felt towards her was annoyance, but you both saved each others asses a couple of times and that counts for some emotional bonds between two ponies.

You could say farewell to Last Word now, but it would proably look weird since you are going to stay in the town for at least half a day more.
You also could meet some other Lunar Magi, but you were not sure if it was good idea to meet them after what you had done.

Input action.

>>30824745
Deal with our mistakes, get our shit together and visit Lunar Magi.

>>30824745
Go talk to fello magi and chat about Prospero. Prosperity? Whatever, let's find someone relateable to talk about the burning of our home, and see if we can forge new bonds.

>>30824745
Bump
Study the pocket dimension magic, or rest and find a few magical tomes on magical theories. Which ever works. Flip a bit if you have to.

Speaking of bits, what do they look like? One side with the moon and the other the sun? Something else?

Not even nuDH deserves to fall off the board.

>>30824782
>>30825427

Time has come for you to face your fears and deal with your sense of guilt. You must face your fellow Magi, or at least some of them, and talk to them about... something.
You haven't thought this far, but you understood one thing - if you continue thinking in your room, your momentous courage will be gone for good.
Filled with determination, you hurried to the castle library, trying not to think about hundreds of ways the potential conversations can go wrong.
When you finally reached the library, your resolve was almost gone and you stopped before massive iron doors, biting your lips in hesitation.
Maybe the library was empty? Or maybe there were at least no Magi there? It wouldn't hurt to at least check, right?
You charged your horn and opened the door a bit with your telekinesis and peeked inside.

There were three ponies there, all of whom you recognized as members of Lunar Magi.
Sergeant Aura Magma was literally plowing through the bookshelves, seemingly unhindered by a hefty stack of books residing on his back or loss of his horn. It was strange seeing the red-maned stallion here, since the pyromancer was far from being a diligent student and what he hoped to learn now, considering his disability, was a mystery for you.
Private Astral Wind was seemingly struggling with some book, which name you couldn't discern yet. Pink unicorn mare with violet mane was enlisted in ranks of Lunar Magi around the same time as you and even was your coeval, though you haven't talked to her much before. Not like there were other Magi you had any strong bonds with.
Sergeant Silent Hex, middle-aged grey mare with light blue curly mane, was acting as a librarian, sitting behind her counter and skimming through some catalogues.

It was not yet too late to give in to your instinct and quietly get out of library, since nobody had noticed you yet.
Input action.

>>30831028
"Eeee... h-hi there. I was told I can find you guys here". Wave at them awkwardly and await their reaction.

>>30831028
>lunar magi confirmed book horses
>having rooms for themselves to sleep in the library
Go in there and start with the librarian. Make small talk or some shit about wizard horse stuff.

>>30831095
>>30831333

Time to remember all that knowledge you got from the psychology books and put it to action!
"H-hey there! I was told I can find you guys here." you muttered, your eyes jumping from one mage to another.
You managed to draw their attention for a second. All three ponies glanced at you with various degree of surprise and then returned to their buisness.
That could have gone worse. Probably. Well, you couldn't really blame them for not understanding to whom you were talking to. You decided to pretend that you were taslking to librarian all along.
"Uh, Hex, I was sort of looking for you"
"So here I am. What's the matter?" unicorn mare once again looked away from her papers.
"I, well, I wanted to talk to you about..." you struggled to keep a smile on your face.
"Is it urgent? I am in a middle of a workflow here." she sternly interrupted you.
You were not prepared to this. In fact, you were not prepared to any possible answer she could give. Sure, you could always back away, but it would defeat the whole point of this 'experience'.

Input action.

>>30831533
>but you were not sure if it was good idea to meet them after what you had done
>Time has come for you to face your fears and deal with your sense of guilt
I'm drawing blanks. Which thing? Studying star magic? Accidentally killing his brother and imbuing his soul into a suit of armor? Turning those lunar magi corpses into fighting automatons in the last defense for Prosperity?

>Sergeant Aura Magma was literally plowing through the bookshelves
Those poor shelves. Who will fix them- oh right magic.

Sergeant Silent Hex, middle-aged grey mare
Unf. MILF material. Or maybe she has that cougar thing going for her.

Right. Back to Hex. Ask her where you can find the books which may have any details pertaining to anything relating to Star Magic.

>>30831584

"Well, that was library-related thing. Did you manage to save any books with anything related to star magic?"
"Oh, I should have guessed. Yes, we managed to get save, but it is mostly basics you already read during your training. Some of the more advanced works must be still left in the ruins of Prosperity. We didn't have enough time to save them."
"Yeah, after the war ends we should send a team to retrieve them."
"Better to do it as soon as possible. I bet looters are already pillaging remains of our houses." she scrunched at this thought, "And if these works get in the wrong hooves..."
"Yeah, I can imagine." you awkwardly smiled.
"I know." Hex sighed, "Though there was one you might be interested in, but," she glanced at the second unicorn mare, "Astral is currently reading it."
"Oh. And do you, by chance, know when she will finish it? I am reassigned this evening. So it would be great to at least take a look."
"She isn't going to finish soon." Hex shook her head, with probably too much eagerness for your liking. But you were not going to give up a chance to acquire more knowledge!
"Well, I guess I can ask her to lend it to me for a while?" you smild once again, this time more sincere.
"You'd better not. Her coltfriend... let's just say that would be a bad idea." she replied, averting her gaze.

Input action.

>>30832064
He either died or we turned him into a corpse golem. Well. Shit. Wish them farewell. No hard feelings, Lunar Mages.

>>30832064
So when will we be able to make a pocket dimension to store all our food and loot in? Should we test it out in some area that is not populated?

>>30832160
First thing, it is not a new pocket dimension, but a portal to another dimension.
Second thing, you already know the spell, but as you can guess putting something into another dimension might result into some unforseen consequences for that thing.

>>30832250
Like the spread of daemons and star spawn? Point.
So Arcane knows the spell. That's good. Is there a way he can work it into, let's say an object or a sack? And could he put another spell over the portal to another dimension spell to act as a kind of 'filter'?

>as you can guess putting something into another dimension might result into some unforseen consequences for that thing.
You're right. Fucking star spawn chechen's would probably eat any food we put in there. Or would placing any food in another dimension warps its characteristics? Say, you put a pear into the other dimension. When you retrieve it later it would probably come back as a carnivorous plant. Something like that?

>might result into some unforseen consequences for that thing.
then what if we put a metric-fuckton of rocks in there for the sole purpose of dumping a portable avalanche on someone?

>>30832064
Let's socialize with that Astral Wind mare.

>>30832341
>>30832105
So socializing or not? Make your choice.

>>30832552
S O C I A L I S E

>>30832552
S̢̞̳̻͚̠̬͇̠̝̤̱̱͆̀ͫ̏̽ͤͫ̽́̿͌ͤͬ̊̍̏̀͜͢ ̡̖͎̱͍̘̘̺̮̣̱͇͓͇̮̈̇̈́̈́͂̈̐ͣ͜Ọ̧̺͈̠̰̜͚͇̠͚̯̜͖̖̤̥̹ͨ̈͆̂͘̕ ̛͙̬̻͕̥͆̒̑ͩͬ̓̑͆̾ͫ̃ͦͪ̾͌͠͠C̸̡̛̛̱̫̞̟̮͍͉͖̣̭̱̫͕̪͇͚̐ͧ̃͌ͫ̆͛̊̔ͣ͡ ̴̴̢̢̣̞̤͕̱̝͉͍͖̮̖̗͍͚͊̈́ͮ͆ͮ͗̚ͅI̳͈̙̺̻͖͚̯͎̠̪͚̬̙̱̾̔̓̔͐ͫ̒̓͢͢ͅ ̷̴̷̣̯͕͇̗͉̐͐̋̄̍ͦ̐̾̚͘͢Ȁ̛͕͉͈͖̯͖̖̟͓̦͖͈̪̰̻̣̮̼ͫ̿̊̊ ͙͎̤̭̻̫͔̗̥̞̯̤̤͕̦̟͖̣̖̂̾͐̋͒̆́L̶̪̩̭͔̓ͯ̋̽ͫ̾̊ͨ̓̇̈ͧ̉͆̆̀̚͝ ̮̘͔̮̭͗̈̓ͩͤ̾͗̆̌͊̄͘͞͝Ȉ̶̷̶̝͓̯͈̦̮̥̪̖̋ͣ̎̐ͣ̒͛̏̋̇ͨ̚̕͟ ̷͙̬̖̝͍̥̜̫̦͇̼̗̑̔͗̏ͤ̂̌̍̌̎̿͟͟͠Ź̛̙͎͚̙̇͆ͩͭͦ̏̒̓͐ͣ́̆̍̕ ̷̢̜̰͖̟̟͇̯͓̺͔͎̣̙͂̄̑̌̆͢͠͡Ę̴̧̛̻͈̘̥͈͔̏̇̈́̆̾̄̾̒̿̆̈́̈́͝

>>30832064
>"You'd better not. Her coltfriend... let's just say that would be a bad idea."
On the possible chance that her coltfriend was one of the few ponies that died in Prosperity, and if he was one of the few corpses Arcane had to resurrected, then sorry? He had to do it! Had to buy some time for the portal!

Maybe we can just find some quiet place in here to study the Grimore some more until it's time to head back.
Can we add an additional spell/enchantment thing to the time? Like a tracking device in case it is taken or we lose it?

I have a curious idea: back at the barracks, when Arcane was reading over his tome, there were two topics that piqued his interest. The dimensional storage and the sealing of demons in living and inanimate objects. My idea concerns the latter.
What if Arcane were to do such and such and put a demon in someone -adding all the ribbons, bells and seals he needs- and casts a Geas (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Geas) upon the living subject, where said magic would compel then to ignore the whispering of the demon?

Mayhaps we could do it to some wet noodle of a night guard pony. That way, on the odds that they can't resist the demon, their morphed whatever form would be- fuck it never mind.

>>30834139
"So if I listen to the demon then the spell hurts me and if I don't listen to it then the demon hurts me? Cool, where do I sign?"

>>30834332
Ha yeah it does sound pretty bad. I thought the seal would prevent the demon from doing shit like hurting it's hosy so long as it was active, and the geas would act as a counter measure for the demon's persuasive abilities. Im just trying to cover all bases.

>>30832552
How is this library illuminated?

>>30836824
With the power of friendship, duh.

>>30837439
My little night guard, my little night guard
Aahh aaah aaah aaahh!

Sorry, but I won't be able to run today. Expect update tomorrow.

>>30838365
Bump