After Emerald Cut led a very red Talon back to the others, Fluttershy led him the rest of the way to the cottage for the night. Talon collapsed into his bed, exhausted from the day's activities, before succumbing to a dreamless sleep.
“So, today you've got more tutoring with Twilight.” Fluttershy watched as Talon helped clear away their breakfast. “I wonder if she found out anything about your magic. That would be nice, wouldn't it?”
Talon looked over from the sink after he set his bowl down. “Yes. Twilight teach magic?”
“Oh, I'm sure she'd love to teach you magic. She's very good at it, and she loves having somepony to teach things to. The crusaders will be having a lesson with you today, though, so she might not be able to teach you much. After all, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom can't use magic. How is your wing feeling?”
Talon looked over at his wing as he flexed it experimentally. “Is good.”
Fluttershy checked over his wing in concern. “Well... maybe you could try some of those exercises Rainbow showed us before you take your bath? If you're feeling up to it, that is.”
Talon slowly pulled his wing back in toward his side.“Talon try.”
After Talon did the exercises, though Fluttershy noticed he held his wing pretty tightly to his side afterward. She made sure his bath was extra warm, hoping it might help soothe his muscles. It seemed to work, as he had none of the previous night's limp as they walked through town to the castle. Suddenly she heard a familiar voice call out to her.
“Howdy Fluttershy! What're you doing out this early today?”
“Oh, hi, Applejack. I'm just bringing Talon over to the castle so Twilight can tutor him.”
“Well she does love teaching ponies things. Just make sure she doesn't fly too far over his head with any of it, you hear?” Applejack planted one of her hooves on the stall's counter.
Pinkie Pie popped out of one of the barrels of apples. “Speaking of flying high, have you guys heard about the CIRCUS?!”
Applejack sighed. “Have I? Between ya'll and Apple Bloom, I ain't heard the end of it.”
Fluttershy glanced to the side. “I,um, hadn't heard of a circus in town.”
“Well, it's gonna have balloons, and baboons, and cotton candy, and clowns, and trapeze artists, and..."
“Ah well, anywho,” Applejack said as she leaned across the counter, ignoring Pinkie's ramblings to focus on Talon where he had retreated behind Fluttershy, “Is it true what I hear about you and Apple Bloom?”
“U-um, what A-Applejack hear?” Talon stammered out, fighting to keep from blushing.
“Well, I heard you saved Apple Bloom from some silly stunt her other friends pulled.” Applejack squinted hard at him. “But you're acting mighty strange about it, and the way Apple Bloom talked about it... I feel like she didn't tell me the whole story. Wait, are you the coltfriend Sweetie and Scootaloo were going on about? I thought they were just teasing Bloom, but...”
“Uh... not know.”
“Huh, nopony told ya'll 'bout the birds and bees and such?” Applejack scratched the back of her head with a hoof. “Well, y'see, when a stallion and a mare love each other a whole lot-”
“No explain! Emerald explain, Talon know!” Talon's face was quickly becoming a battleground between his embarrassment and his rapidly rising panic.
“Okay, okay already! I get it. What did you mean, if that's not what you didn't know?”
It was evident that panic was rapidly retreating as embarrassment won this round. “Uh... not know if Talon coltfriend.”
“Well, if you don't know then you prolly ain't. You might wanna talk to her about that, though. Anywho, I'd best let ya'll be on your way. Don't want to keep Twi waiting too long.”
“Alright. I'll see you later, Applejack.”
“...and puppies jumping through hoops, and somepony being shot out of a CANNON, can you believe it, Applejack?”
Applejack stared flatly at Pinkie. “Yep, I reckon I can believe it alright.”
Twilight answered her door on the second knock. “Oh good you're here.”
“Yes, well, I'm sorry we - eep!”
Twilight dragged Fluttershy and Talon in the door with her magic, practically galloping to the library with them being towed along in her magic. “You won't believe it!”
Spike slid down from the ladder he was using to put away books and rolled his eyes. “Pretty sure they will, Twilight.”
Twilight rolled her eyes before she plopped her friends down on a comfy reading chair currently situated in front of a flip chart.
“So, first, these are the readings for ponies.” Twilight held a pointer in her magic as she explained the contents of the graph. “These each show the active vs. passive magic gradient for the different tribes of ponies.”
Twilight flipped to the next chart. “Here are the gradients for buffalo, changelings, and zebra.” Another flip. “And these are for griffons, dragons, and alicorns.”
“This,” she pronounced with a flourish, “is Talon's gradient.”
Fluttershy squinted at the indecipherable graph. “Um, Twilight... I'm sorry, but... I don't understand.”
Twilight sighed as she flipped to a new graph. “See, Talon's magic is between the charts for a dragon or alicorn, closer to dragon, but shaped a little more like a griffon's.”
Twilight levitated a book over, flipping rapidly through the pages. “Here, Talon, do you remember what your dad looked like?”
“Not good.”
Twilight turned the book to face Talon. “Well, did he look anything like this?”
“Umm... yes, is like.”
Twilight bounced around the chair where Talon and Fluttershy were seated. “I knew it! I just knew it!”
“Um... knew what, Twilight?” Fluttershy asked in confusion.
“I think... no, I'm fairly certain that Talon's father was...” Twilight paused, taking in the expectant looks on the faces of the other three. “...a dragon.”
They heard a heavy thud from behind Twilight, and looked to see Spike standing with his mouth agape, the book he was shelving forgotten resting unnoticed on top of his foot.
“I don't believe it!”
“So...” Fluttershy looked over to Twilight as she helped bandage Spike's foot. Limestone Dust's Compendium of Mineral Affinities was almost as heavy as the subject it professed to provide a comprehensive knowledge of. “That's why Talon can breath fire?”
Twilight nodded beside her as Talon watched them work. “Yes, and it's why he can cast magic. His thaumic matrix is geared towards the active mana channels, but the mixing with passive channels like those used by griffons or pegasi makes it so he's able to bypass the thaumic restraints that would normally restrict certain types of active magic usage.”
Fluttershy stared at her in confusion, a bandage still help in her mouth.
“Uh, Twilight?” Spike asked. “I didn't understand that, and I live with you.”
“Oh.” A blush crept onto her face. “Um, basically, he can cast magic because dragons use active magic, but he's not as restricted in how he uses it as a dragon is. He should also be able to manipulate weather like a pegasus or griffon. I had some tests I wanted to do, in fact.”
“Well, any other shocking revelations, Twilight? Or do those only come when I'm carrying one of the top ten heaviest books in the Library?” Spike crossed his arms, one eyebrow raised as he gazed at Twilight critically.
Twilight smiled sheepishly. “Sorry Spike. I don't think we have any more of those today.”
“Eh, I'll be fine. I'm just messing with you. C'mon, Talon, let's see what she's got for you this time.” Spike smirked over his shoulder at Twilight as he left. “Maybe she can manage not to blow something up this time.”
“Spike! That's so unfair! Explosions happen less than 40% of the time when I'm in the lab!”
Talon looked over to Fluttershy and shrugged, following Twilight and Spike out of the room.
“Alright, first thing is to test your weather manipulation ability. Here, hold this.” Twilight ripped a chunk off of a cloud that floated in the corner.
Talon reached out and grabbed the errant wisp of cloud before it floated back up to the ceiling of the lab.
“Okay,” Twilight muttered from where she had her face buried in her notes. “Tactile cloud response is normal... Now Talon, try and make it a different shape.”
“Okay...” Talon squeezed the cloud slightly and it burst into mist.
“Okay... so fine control isn't very good...” Twilight gripped a thick piece of cloud, laying it across the floor. “Here, stand on this.”
Talon walked over and hopped onto the cloud, bouncing slightly as he landed. Intrigued, he bounced a few more times. “Fun!”
“Yep, that definitely works.” Twilight smiled at Talon's antics as she scribbled in her notes. “Okay, now can you put this back with the rest?”
“Uhh... okay...” Talon pressed the puff of cloud into the main mass. “Good?”
“Yes, just one more test.” She levitated goggles and earmuffs to everypony in the room. Once certain that each of them had been provided adequate gear, she pushed the cloud together until she held a dark black mass about twice the size of her head.
“Alright, Talon! Just get the lightning out of this cloud!” Twilight yelled so she could be heard through the earmuffs.
“Twilight? Are you sure this is a good idea?” Fluttershy interjected. “Last time, you-”
“Uhhm, Twilight?” Twilight looked over to see Talon holding a bright white orb crackling with energy, standing next to the now-white cloud. “What do?”
One impromptu game of hot potato later, and Twilight had the orb floating in the center of a blue crystal box. Spike remained hidden under a table as she trotted over. “You can come out now, Spike, it's safe.”
He looked up and snickered. “You sure? That mane-do looks pretty dangerous.”
“Oh, hush, Spike. I'm still wondering how Talon did that.” Twilight turned to Fluttershy. “I'll get something set up by next week for some more experiments, but today I wanted to go over verb tenses and equestrian history with Talon.” Twilight trotted out of the lab. “Let me get freshened up first, though. I'll meet you in the library, okay guys?”
Fluttershy sat quietly waiting in the library while Talon read a book about Equestrian grammar and talked with Spike. Soon enough, Twilight reappeared and floated a few books down, stacking them neatly next to them.
“We'll go over some math when the crusaders get here, but for now, let's have a review.”
Spike turned to Fluttershy as Twilight began to quiz Talon on vocabulary. “I'd kinda given up on meeting any other dragons here in Ponyville. Well, half-dragon, but, y'know.”
Fluttershy turned to Spike. “I didn't realize it was that big of a deal to you, Spike.”
“Yeah, well, I've kinda always wanted to have a little brother or something to teach all about dragon stuff and just hang out with.” Spike shrugged and looked over toward Talon. “This is pretty close, right?”
“I guess it is.” Fluttershy looked over to where Talon was filling out a worksheet. “Maybe I could bring Talon over more often so you two could spend some time together.”
Spike's eyes lit up as he turned back to Fluttershy. “That'd be great!”
The crusaders had shown up shortly after Twilight started actually teaching. They had decided to help Talon learn math rather than do the refresher lesson Twilight had prepared for them.
“Hey, Talon,” Talon looked up as Sweetie called out for him. “We were going to go to the circus tonight, wanna come with us?”
Fluttershy looked over from her seat nearby. “Um, girls, I don't know if-”
Scootaloo dashed over and put a foreleg over Talon's shoulder. “Yeah, c'mon, it'll be way better than that boring old math!”
With that, he was half following and half dragged by the crusaders out of the library.
“Well, they look like they have him well in hoof, don't you think?” Fluttershy turned to see Discord floating above her in a soap bubble.
“I don't know, Discord. I'm afraid that Talon might-”
“You've got to let the little scamp loose a little. Grow some hair on his chest, or... whatever it is he grows. Besides,” he added with a snap of his fingers as they were suddenly in her cottage along with an inordinate amount of doilies. His voice shifted to that of the posh Canterlot elite. “We have a teatime to attend to.”
Fluttershy looked worriedly out the window toward the setting sun. “Oh dear.”