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(Story excerpt — Chapter Six "Burning the Dross" from The Amulet of Shades)
After a short walk to the dormitory wing of the castle, she pushed open the heavy wooden door of the commons area, causing a few heads to turn. Scanning the area bustling with classmates and acquaintances, Tempest spotted her friends at their usual table, situated behind the centrally placed hearth.

Tempest smirked as she remembered how her friends had laid claim to this choice location. Alistor was the one to hatch the idea on the second week of school, working to coordinate the schedules of each of their friends so that somepony could always be present at the table, claiming to be saving the seats for the others of the group. By the end of the week, the rest of the school had just accepted that the table by all rights was theirs.

Alistor had rapidly become her best friend. He was a rather diminutive unicorn with a smoky-blue coat and a gray mane highlighted with light and dark streaks matching the colors of his bizarre cutie mark. Alistor was gifted in a variety of magics, but had mastered none of them. However, one feature made him unique: he seemed to possess a strange magical talent in a field that hadn’t been developed yet.

“Tempest — right on time!” He glanced smugly to his left at Silver Shine, a taller mare in their class who glared back at him. “Some ponies think they can guess at your arrival better than yours truly.” In response to this, Silver Shine pushed a small stack of bits over to him, revealing her pale lavender coat as her arm extended across the table from her flowing black robes.

“Fine,” she glowered. “Your debt is paid.” She leaned back again, tossing her deep blue and fuschia mane. “I’m hardly impressed by your prediction this time, Al. I only placed a wager for something to do while we waited. Besides, you didn’t even look at your mystical fortune-telling book.” She lowered her voice to mutter her next words to Mysty Spirit who was seated to her left, ignoring Bright Light who sat between them. “Should have known that Tempest would be late with her meeting and miss dinner… again.” Her gaze flicked back up at Tempest, only faintly holding back her accusation.

Alistor stuck his tongue out while wrinkling his nose. “Should have known, eh? Well, I did.” Lighting his horn, Alistor brought up a plate of food from somewhere under the table. “Here ya go, Temp. Chef Marinara was working the kitchens tonight, and they made your favorite. I had to fend off Bright Light, though.”

“Oooh, cheese manicotti!” Tempest’s dark mood lightened a bit as she looked at the plate presenting one of her favorites. “Thanks Alistor! You’re the best!” She plopped down on the remaining space next to him and began to dig in.

“Right again, and when you’re right, you’re right…” Alistor sighed, before turning towards Silver Shine with a cross look. “And it’s my codex, not… whatever you said it was.”

Tempest turned an ear towards her friends’ conversation while she stuffed her face full of manicotti. She was really quite hungary, and Alistor had been kind enough to cast a warming spell on the meal before she sat down. Tempest could tell that Mysty Spirit was anxious to start the game, if her fidgeting hooves were any indication, and sure enough, she began to bounce lightly in her seat, her two-toned lavender and sienna curls bouncing cutely as she did so.

“Tempest, you promised!” Mysty whined. “You knew we were all set to launch our new quest tonight in Ogres and Oubliettes. I told you it was going to be at seven o’clock!” Mysty stuck out her bottom lip in a cute little pout.

“I don’t recall any promise,” Bright Light mumbled in deep baritone. He fixed Tempest with a sidelong glance between his long white bangs, setting the O&O book down. “All you did was tell Tempest what time our game was scheduled. If I recall, all she did was give you one of her patented dodges. I think the wording she used this time was ‘okay, we’ll see.’ You didn’t pin her down to an actual commitment.” Mysty folded her arms before giving him a loud raspberry .

Rolling his eyes, Bright Light ducked back behind the rule book. After a moment his voice came out from behind. “And Tempest’s meetings with Princess Luna have been going especially late recently. Hardly a feat of clairvoyance, Alistor.”

“Never said it was, Brightly.” Alistor grinned as he beaned a twenty-sided dice off of the cover of the book, causing Bright to look up an glare at him over the edge. “Just patterns and probabilities.”

Mysty pushed her small figurine forward with a petite cornflower blue hoof. “Okay, I’ve got one. There is a very high probability that my necromancer cleric is getting tired of the pattern of always waiting around for Tempest’s paladin to show up!”

“We can still play, geeze!” Tempest mumbled out through a mouth full of manicotti. “Just let me finish this real quick.”She hoped they could understand her through all of that pasta as she struggled to swallow the mess. “I would have been here a while ago, if not for Celestia accosting me in the hall.” Tempest stopped, knowing that what she just said was going to get a reaction.

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Posted previously at: 2018-07-03T07:21:57 | Posted previously by: Mildgyth