***Friday, Day 34, noonish***
It seems like I spend my time seeking out ponies exponentially more since I moved into this town. To be honest, I think I preferred it when I could rely on a certain amount of consistency in my days.
Thoughts of my friends, and especially my marefriend, flit through my mind like an energetic pegasus.
Heh, although I have to admit, the results from the interesting times in this town have been enjoyable. I suppose a healthy mixture of tedium and spontaneity is the key.
I corral my wandering thoughts and instead focus back on why I am once again on the hunt for an electric unicorn. The irritating reasons behind today’s quest do lead to slight internal grumbling as I continue searching for him. I spot my quarry as he approaches his traditional hangout of the library. My face adopts a neutral expression as I make a beeline for the door and follow him in. A cursory glance around the interior of Golden Oaks shows a lack of librarians, which is just fine by me. I make sure to make my hoofsteps louder as I walk in, in order to get his attention.
Once he turns around, Volt’s eyes widen slightly at my unexpected appearance. I levitate the book he had given me out of my saddlebag and hover it between us as I begin, “Mind explaining why the book you gave me is completely blank?” I let the book open slightly to reveal its bare pages.
He says nothing, so I continue, “Volt, why would you even bother giving me a blank book if you changed your mind about getting me the journal? I would have been a little irritated at you for changing your mind, but I would have understood. This just seems… unnecessary.”
Volt raises a hoof to the back of his head sheepishly in response to my forced neutral face, “I was trying to appeal to both sides here. Mostly appealing to Twilight’s side, but I didn’t want you to think I didn’t care about your side either.”
I sigh both to myself and to him, having expected such an answer and having no real reason to be angry at him for it. My tone is a bit exasperated as I respond, “Volt… I understand what you were trying to do, but this is useless to me.” I put the book on a nearby table, “I need the information from that journal-”
A sharp and familiar voice cuts me off from another room, “-and this is how you go about getting it?!”
A familiar lavender unicorn makes her way into the main area of the library from her loft upstairs. Her face clearly shows that she is most certainly NOT ok with what had been going on. Her voice mirrors her displeasure, “You went around my book ban,” she points a hoof at Volt while still facing me, “you tried to use my coltfriend against me,” she then turns to the coltfriend in question and says accusingly, “And you went along with it?!”
My eyebrows shoot up at the redirected anger as I quickly cut off anything Twilight was going to say, “Twilight! Volt didn’t go against you. This whole thing was my idea, I asked him to do this. While he agreed at first, in the end, he sided with you. He didn’t betray you in any way.”
She still looks pretty angry, but at least it’s directed at me now. Her face flashes from angry to thoughtful to apologetic as she turns to Volt and says, “I’m sorry, Volt. I am happy to know you sided with me, so thank you.” Her voice and demeanor harden again as she turns back to me, causing the fur along my spine to stand on end at what I can feel is to come.
“As for you,” she begins, “you injured my first coltfriend and, in the process, caused me to fail a project at the critical point! I had to redo the entire thing! When I gave you a punishment for what you did, I thought you were simply stoically taking it. Instead, I find out that you were going behind my back to get what you wanted anyway! This was not how this was all supposed to go! To top it all off, you ruined my latest friendship report! It was on how sometimes friends just accept the consequences for their actions in order to make sure they don’t stay mad at each other. Well, we both know that report isn’t accurate anymore, don’t we?! It’s like you don’t have an ounce of respect for me!”
The last statement to her rant causes a spike of irritation within me due to its false nature. I raise my voice slightly, not nearly as much as she had, but enough to where I try to make sure I will not get interrupted, “You’re wrong about me not respecting you Twilight. I do respect you, as I respect all my friends. This whole situation was never meant to slight you, and I am sorry that it all escalated as much as it did.” I let a slight bit of irritation enter my voice as I rile myself up, “What happened with Volt and your little project was unfortunate, but not intended in the least. I’m sure you well know that it was a series of unfortunate accidents. While I do regret that I never actually came back and apologized for what happened, my mind was preoccupied with the more immediate aftermath that I had to deal with. Namely, Specter’s newly discovered sapience. I’ve been trying to be calm about his whole situation, and with your book ban keeping the only accessible source of knowledge that would allow me to help him away from me… I went about getting it in less than desirable ways.” I lose steam in my speech as I reflect on my side and hers, “I was worried, Twilight, and with how angry you were everything occurred… I was more than a bit hesitant to approach you afterwards anyway.” I sigh, “I honestly hate how far this has gone from such a random occurrence. I hope you do realize that I am sorry about making you think I didn’t respect you. To be honest, I really wasn’t thinking about your side in most of this. If at all possible, I would truly appreciate it we could get past all this unpleasantness and go back to being the friends we were.” I end with a tentatively hopeful look.
Throughout my speech, I had noticed a change in Twilight’s demeanor. At first she had maintained her anger, but as it went on her face reflected feelings of thoughtfulness, regret, and finally fatigue. The room is eerie in its silence as everypony absorbs the now out-in-the-open information.
After a time, Twilight sighs to herself, but the small smile she allows fills me with hope, “Honestly, I’m tired of all this too, and I would very much like to go back to being friends.” She lets out a small giggle, “But you are still on book ban for another week.”
I chuckle as well, “Fair enough Miss Sparkle.” I adopt a light teasing tone, “However, if the merciful librarian would indulge me, should you come across anything especially important in your own readings of the nimbat journal, might you let me know?”
She simply nods, “Of course.”
Volt quips in from across the room, peeking his head out from behind his protective book pile, “Look like we closed the book on this case then.”
Twilight giggles as I facehoof and groan loudly.
She manages to stop giggling after a moment as she gets a happier look on her face, “Well, it’ll require a bit of rewriting, but I think I can still do a letter to the princess.”
I cock a curious eyebrow at her, “Oh?”
She nods, “Something along the lines of ‘sometimes when you and your friends have a fight, it’s good to sit down and hear both sides, instead of just letting everypony build up tension until it all explodes.’ It will probably need a little more refining than that, but it’s a start.”
***
Things are peaceful after that. I hang out at the library with Twilight, Volt, and Specter, who I had forgotten was asleep in my saddlebags and was awoken by the raises voices earlier. Being the first time she has seen his new form, Twilight gives my little friend many visual examinations, but he still refuses to talk unless he and I are alone. Twilight is a little huffy about this at first, but resigns herself to the fact that she can’t force him to talk and simply says she hopes he will be able to answer some questions she has some day.
A little more time passes as Twilight buries herself in the nimbat journal to see if she can find anything interesting. Her voice suddenly cuts off my train of thought as she remarks, “You know, Rhino, I actually had a question for you about something you mentioned the other day.”
I give her a look that says ‘I’m listening, please continue.’
She does so, “The other night when I was trying to teach you a spell, you said your magic ‘doesn’t work that way.’ What did you mean?”
I blink in surprise since I was sure she would have forgotten that little detail. Given our recently patched friendship and that I couldn’t really think of a reason not to, I indulge her curiosity, “Alright, let me start by asking you a question: How does unicorn magic usually work?”
She recites the answer as if reading a summary from a book, “Magic is used by knowing a spell, by which meaning how to cast and direct one’s magic to achieve the desired effect, channeling the magic through one’s horn to at least the minimum amount of power needed, and finally releasing the magic to do what you want.”
I nod, “And what do you know of arcane circles?”
“I know they used to be used to create blueprints for spells back before magic education was improved. They aren’t really used at all nowadays due to most finding them too restricting and unnecessary.”
Again I nod, “Well, my magic isn’t like most unicorns. Basic levitation works just fine for me, but anything beyond that… has never really worked well for me. Even as a foal, anytime I would try magic beyond levitation, it would either just fizzle out, or it would cause a magical backlash, leaving me with a sore horn and a splitting headache. My magic also has the tendency to shift with my emotions, nothing too extreme, just things like power output and precision, but this also means my hold on my magic is a bit looser than most unicorns. It’s still there, and I can direct it, just not with the usual accuracy. Think of my magic as... more fluid than most. This results in the inability to cast spells.” I gesture to my cutie mark, “Arcane circles and runes are the answer to this. I create circles for any magic I cast outside of levitation. Both Blink and Res are circles I have created, perfected, and memorized. When I cast magic, I first create the arcane circle with the proper runes and configuration for the task, and then guide my magic into it. Like a river into a channel, my magic flows through the circle, where it does what I want it to.” I lift a hoof and cast Res onto it, the usual circle forming on the bottom of my hoof now visible since it is raised, “See? I scribe the circles thus I can cast what I need to. Anytime I use a circle it is visible. Of course, as you saw with the project, this does also give me quite the knowledge of enchantments, since they are based around the use of runes to guide magic for specific uses.”
Twilight raises a hoof to stop me a moment, “But how do you learn new spells then?”
I go on, “The short answer is: in my own way. I see what the spell is meant to accomplish and then create a circle using runes I know in order to achieve the same effect. It’s a bit like having to experiment with every spell to get the proportions and combinations correct. It also means I learn them slower than most since I have to do so in a roundabout way.” I allow myself a proud smile, “However this has resulted in a bit of a perk for me. Remember my fluidity comment? It also means my magic is a bit more flexible. As you could imagine, having to memorize all the circles for spells can get very tiresome. Thus, I have learned over the years that it is actually much easier to simply use what spells I already know and make a few alterations to them in order to achieve new things. It’s why I don’t have more than a hooffull of spells I use with any great frequency, I use what I know in as many ways as possible. I still do little experiments at home with new spells, I’m working on one right now actually, and I am always happy to learn new runes because they open up many possibilities for new and existing circles of mine. So in the end, like I said, my magic just doesn’t work like most unicorns, but it has made me who I am, so I’m fine with that.”
I glance at my watch, “On an unrelated note, we should probably leave now to retrieve Rarity so we can go deliver the gauntlets to Blue.”
***
A short time later finds Volt, Twilight, Rarity, Blue, Rainbow, and I all out in one of the empty flat fields near town. The unicorns in our group are currently getting Blue equipped with his little request. The entire project turns out to be a bit bigger than gauntlets: it starts with some lightweight metal strips attached to the forward edges of his wings, these lead to some specialized wiring Volt created located at the base of his wings, a centralized power storage sapphire within a metal housing, from there more of the wiring leading down the forelegs, attached with straps, and finally into the gauntlets themselves. The entire setup has runes engraved on the larger pieces of metal, while the wiring and where it connects to the pieces reflects the more technical aspects of the project. Finally, the whole thing is dark blue in color with gold trim to match Blue’s natural color scheme.
We stand back to let Blue look at himself as we admire our work. He gives himself a once-over before looking to us with a smile, “Wow, this is way more than I thought you guys would come up with! I feel like I’ve got a full super suit on!”
Rainbow deadpans, “It’s a pair of metal shoes.”
Blue flexes and wiggles his eyebrows in Rainbow’s direction, “You know I look good.”
“Remind me what you needed these for?”
Blue keeps looking himself over, “Remember, the whole reason I moved here was to study the Everfree in my spare time, and it never hurts to have an edge in that place.”
Rainbow rolls her eyes and settles on our group, “So do these things actually work?”
Twilight gestures to further out in the field, where we can all see some dummies made of sticks and leaves, “That’s what we’re here to test.”
Rarity interjects, “And on that note, I believe I shall be making my leave. I merely wanted to stay to make sure that they looked fabulous on Blue Breeze, but I need to get back to my shop. It’s likely there’s going to be some debris from this bit of target practice, so… tah tah!” The fashionista waves as she trots of towards her home.
The rest of us shrug off Rarity’s departure as Blue turns towards the targets. He centers himself before rearing up onto his hindlegs and thrusting out one forehoof with a decisive, “Hah!”
Nothing happens.
Blue looks down to his hoof in confusion before trying again.
Still nothing.
“Wind!” he points both hooves in front of him.
“Air bend!” he raises both hooves skyward before bringing them down to point at the targets.
“Woosh!” he does a wavelike motion with both his hooves in the direction of the targets.
None of these evoke a reaction from the gauntlets or dummies.
He looks back to us in confusion, “Am I doing something wrong? Is there a certain way I have to punch forward?”
I take it upon myself to speak for the group, “No.”
“Then why isn’t this working?”
I give him a deadpan look, “Flap your wings to charge it first.”
He looks at part of the gear wired to his wings, “Oh.”
You can almost feel the sarcasm in Rainbow’s comment, “Smooth.”
Blue flaps his wings a few times, causing the wires to glow a golden color and the sapphire in his chest to glow a faint blue. After about fifteen seconds of stationary flapping later and Blue rears up again. He thrusts his hoof towards the target-
*FOOSH*
-and a blast of air about twice the radius of his hoof rushes out and punches hole through one of the brittle targets.
Everypony present raises their hooves above their heads in a triumphant “Woo!”
Twilight looks to myself and Volt, “Success!”
We three high hoof.
Blue meanwhile is having the time of his life, punching holes in his various targets from across the field while Rainbow looks on appreciatively, evidently evaluating if the gauntlets meet her requirement of ‘awesome’ or not.
Twilight suddenly perks her ears as she looks at Volt, “You know Volt, your magic should be back up to full strength by now. I talked about helping you with your magic, so this would be a good way to evaluate your current skill. Why don’t you take a few shots at the targets too?”
Volt looks surprised for a moment, “Umm, okay.”
The electric stallion steps up next to Blue and lowers his horn at the targets, his horn charging up with its yellow glow. He lets the charge build up a few seconds before releasing it-
-and not getting anywhere close to the targets as the shot flies into one of the trees on the edge of the field.
Yeah, still as terrible of a shot as he was with Torchlight.
He fires off a few more shots, but none of them actually hit any of the targets. As Volt’s takes a breath after a series of rapid fire spray and pray shots, Rainbow remarks smoothly to Twilight, “Sorry Twi, looks like you just proved my coltfriend is cooler than yours.”
I miss Twilight’s rebuttal as I see Blue pat Volt on the back in support, “Hey, don’t worry. I have a bit of an advantage here since my dad was a Royal Guard and made sure to keep me in shape for stuff like this.”
Volt shrugs off his performance, “No big deal, I never really had great aim or magic control.” He turns to Blue with a smirk as he levitates one of his conductor rods out of his bags, “However, I was always a great fencer.” The rod then sparks a bit from the magic Volt is putting into it. “But I could definitely use some help in fixing this magic control problem.”
I chuckle as the sun begins to set on us laughing guys and the two mares snarking back and forth.