A Change of Weather in Ponyville

by MLPDavester

Ch.2 - New Friends and New Discoveries

Maghus was sleeping peacefully in his bed, a slight twitch on his muzzle every few seconds as the smell of freshly baked food wafting in from down the hall. He had been only moved into the Canterlot residences for out of Canterlot students. But he had taken to the comfortable beds as if he was still home- falling asleep easily every night, and waking up completely prepared for the day. Today was a little different however, as Maghus would soon find out.

Maghus’ head throbbed slightly as a faint buzzing sound began near the vicinity of his bedside desk. As he tried to bury himself under his blankets in annoyance the buzzing only seemed to increase in intensity, until it finally reached a point that Maghus had to look over to turn off his infernal alarm clock. What he saw however caught him off guard enough to wake him up just the same. His alarm clock looked like a small greyish cloud, with small sparks of lightning coming from it every few moments, which is what had caused the buzzing sounds when they hit the table.

“What in Equestria?” Maghus rubbed his eyes with his hooves, hoping that when he moved them the cloud would be his alarm clock again, and he had just been in a bit of a dream-state still upon waking up. He was disappointed however as the cloud only seemed to spark more, almost seeming to brag about being there beyond his hopes. “Where the hay did my clock go? And why is a CLOUD floating on my desk?”

His mind was still racing as he heard a tapping sound on his door followed by a barely audible voice from behind it, “Hello? Are you ok in there? You’re making quite a bit of noise in there. It’s kind of hard to read with the noise actually.”

“Huh?” Maghus thoughts left the cloud temporarily as he wondered what pony would be up reading on a Saturday morning. He was about to look for his clock to see exactly what time it was when he facehoofed, remembering the “cloud clock” on his desk in its place. “Be right there, just…just gimme a sec.”

Maghus looked around his room, trying to find something to hide the cloud in, when he suddenly heard his doorknob start to turn with a purple glow in it. Whoever was coming in was a unicorn…maybe they’d understand what happened to his clock during the night? His mind was still locked in combat when the door fully opened, but Maghus was too focussed on trying to decide what to do to notice a purple unicorn mare walk a bit into the room and stare with wide eyes at the thundercloud on Maghus’ desk, and back to Maghus.

“Ummm…” The purple mare tried to get Maghus’ attention to no avail however, as Maghus continued to tap his head with his hoof in an attempt to discern the situation. The purple mare slowly walked towards him in an attempt to get his notice, but not so fast as she was quite shy talking to somepony she didn’t know. She wouldn’t have been here at all if it weren’t for the interruption in her reading of a book on the history of Starswirl the Bearded by an incessant buzzing sound coming from the next room. “Excuse me?”

Maghus finally snapped to attention at the question, having finally given up on trying to figure out what to do. He was a little shocked to notice a pony already in his room looking oddly at him and the cloud…the cloud! Maghus quickly dove over his bed, his first instinct to grab the cloud and throw it into his open closet. He was denied this option however, as he received a slightly painful zap to his hoof when it came in “contact” with the cloud, causing him to collapse next to his desk, sucking on his hoof in his muzzle to relieve the pain.

“Ow…that smarts…” Maghus whined as he took his hoof out of his mouth from a few moments of sucking the burn spot. He looked up when he heard a small fit of giggling come from the purple mare in his doorway.

“You know, trying to grab a thundercloud isn’t really the best idea.” She continued giggling as Maghus got up, a frown apparent on his face. The frown didn’t last long however as the giggling got to him and forced him to smile and chuckle a bit himself, realizing how silly it must have looked to see a young colt jump across his bed and shock himself on a miniature thundercloud.

The two of them were actually finding the moment so funny as a matter of fact, that they completely missed the moment when the thundercloud suddenly stopped buzzing and became a passive white cloud. When one of them did finally notice however, it was the purple mare, who stopped giggling all the sudden and stared wide-eyed at the cloud. “You…your desk!” She pointed her hoof at the white cloud, which Maghus turned to and looked at, equally surprised as the mare.

Until she had pointed out the suddenly changed cloud, Maghus had started to recognize the purple mare as the one from class earlier that week who had gotten stage fright the day they had attempted altering apples. He had just been about to ask her name when she had pointed out the cloud on his desk. All he had expected was the cloud to have sparked a bit, but as he turned he noticed the lack of a buzzing sound and was as equally surprised as the mare to see a white cloud on his desk instead, not making a bit of noise.

“What the hay is going on?” Maghus slowly reached his hoof towards the cloud, expecting at any moment to be shocked by a stray spark once again. He was even more caught off guard when his hoof simply sunk into the white cloud without dispersing that a normal cloud would do when touched by a non-pegasus. The cloud felt moist, yet cool, with a gentle touch almost like velvet on his hoof. He never expected to be able to feel something so nice, let alone even feel a cloud in his life. Not without a cloud-walking spell at least, and he wasn’t sure he’d ever be skilled enough to use one.

The purple mare was equally surprised at this, but then her eyes suddenly lit up in realization as the class earlier that week came back to her. “It’s you!” She jumped with a joy a bit at this exclamation, much to Maghus’ confusion. She continued her train of thought however as the readings she had done came back to her. “You’re the one who made his apple look like a Zapapple!”

Maghus nodded his head slowly, still not sure where this conversation was going. “Yes…but I don’t see what the apple has to do with this.” Maghus pointed his other hoof at a basket of apples sitting on a shelf, then back to the cloud with a confused look on his face. “One’s an apple that became a rainbow colored apple, and the others a cloud that used to be a watch.”
“Exactly!” The pony nodded her head, already clued in to what had happened and waiting for the navy blue colt in front of her to figure out the hint she had dropped. “They both were ordinary objects, that became something else. But think about what happened in the change. Think about what’s different about them. I’ll be right back.” She then turned and galloped out of the room, off to retrieve a certain book from the special library attachment that Princess Celestia had put in her room to boost her studies in magic.

“What happened in the change…?” Maghus was still lost as to what she meant. She mentioned the apple from class randomly and claimed that it was connected to this cloud somehow. But how could a rainbow apple and a used-to-be-watch thundercloud have in common. The more he thought about it however, the more it managed to piece together into a coherent idea. He voiced his thoughts aloud in little more than a whisper to himself as the pieces of the puzzle shifted into place. “Is this more weather magic?” He thought about how the apple had gone rainbow after he had looked at his other classmates, the thundercloud when he woke up, and the now passive cloud that had taken its place after talking to…Shimmer? Was that her name?

“I’m back!” The purple mare exclaimed as she trotted in levitating a rather large blue leather-bound book beside her. “Did you figure it out yet?” She asked as Maghus shook himself out of his nap groggily. “I’m so sorry! Were you asleep?” To Maghus she looked slightly miffed at herself as she gently placed the large blue book on his desk next to the cloud he had long since removed his hoof from and fallen asleep at his window a bit thereafter.

“No…no…I was just…” He yawned a bit while he stretched out his back, a little stiff from the awkward position he had fallen asleep in with a small book of his own resting on his horn. “Just taking a nap while I waited for you. I thought you would have been back sooner to be quite honest.” He quickly remembered his manners after everything that had gone on this morning. He levitated the small book off his horn and placed it on a nearby shelf then cleared his throat to speak, “My name is Maghus by the way. Maghus Uncorn. I believe yours was…something Sparkle?”

“It’s um…Twilight. Twilight Sparkle.” She said a little nervously, a little caught off guard by his sudden polite attitude. She had all but broken into his roomed and practically interrogated him and yet he was politely asking her name and acting like nothing was wrong with her being there. She hadn’t expected that considering the day’s events thus far. This colt was much different from most ponies she’d met. Most just spoke briefly to her and then ignored her due to her constant reading and isolation. “Maybe we should get back to your little…cloud issue though before we talk about each other?”

Maghus chuckled a little at this, “Yeah, a little out of place I know. But my parents raised me to be a good pony so I thought we should know each other’s names at least before we find out how I’m somehow using weather magic in my sleep and during daydreams in class.” He was a little surprised however when Twilight’s expression turned to that of one of half-confusion and half-understanding, if such a look had ever existed before in all of Equestria. “Something up?”

Twilight nodded her head a bit, a little surprised at what Maghus had just said. “You mean the apple and the cloud-clock were both accidents? You didn’t mean to do it at all? That…kind of makes sense actually.” Twilight then turned to the large blue book and opened it to a page she had marked with her favorite bookmark. On it showed a unicorn with a glowing horn and a cloud surrounded by a magical aura the same colour as the unicorn’s glowing horn. “This book I have describes how weather magic works, and ever since I had read about it I had always been interested. But I never thought I’d ever encounter this type of magic in my life!”

“Uh, Twilight?” Maghus brought her out of her trance with a wave of a hoof in her face, snapping her back to reality and taken aback at how close Maghus had gotten while she had been looking at the book. She backed up a few steps, slightly nervous about his proximity to her. “Oh! Sorry about that.” Maghus shook his hoof apologetically, not realizing his error in moving so close. He hadn’t noticed it because he felt so…comfortable around Twilight for some strange reason. “I was just about to say, I’m going to see Mr. Moonbeam about my magic later this afternoon in his office actually. I figured I’d wait until then to actually learn about it.” Maghus rubbed the back of his head a bit, a sheepish half-grin on his face. “Sorry about that Twilight.”

Twilight scrunched up her face a bit, a little curious about what Maghus had just said. “What time this afternoon?” She patiently awaited Maghus’ reply, hoping that it wasn’t a mere coincidence.

“About 2 PM. Why’s that?” Maghus tilted his head slightly to the side, curious as to why Twilight had asked such an out-of-the-blue question. “Something else happening then that students need to be at or something? Because I’m pretty sure Mr. Moonbeam would have mentioned that to me.”

“No, it’s not that.” Twilight shook her head as she magically closed the blue book. Her confused look deepened slightly as she chose her next words carefully. “It’s just that Princess Celestia-” She was suddenly cut off by Maghus’ jaw practically smacking the floor.

“You know Princess Celestia?!” Maghus was dumbfounded at this latest statement.

“I thought everyone knew that I was her personal student that she had taken in during the entrance exams?” Twilight looked a little taken aback when she realized that perhaps no one else in the class knew this. Maghus jaw also literally hit the floor as his hooves gave out from under him in surprise. “Anyways, before you cut me off, the Princess had invited me to Mr. Moonbeam’s office for that same time.”

“The Princess is coming to see me about my magic?!” Maghus literally fainted at this, in shock and awe that the most regal pony in all of Equestria was going to meet him! Of all ponies!

“Oh dear…” Twilight shook her head a little as she giggled. “I need to remember how ponies react to me mentioning my connection to the Princess sometimes. I hope he wakes up soon for that meeting.” She continued giggling as she sat down at a chair near Maghus desk, continuing to examine the small cloud on Maghus’ desk.