//------------------------------// // Magic is the strangest thing. // Story: Temporary ceasefire // by Ion Clockwork //------------------------------// Chapter 5 “Magic is the strangest thing." This chapter takes place before the Bonebird event during the grimdark chapter. Ion was walking along with his fellow students, as they followed Twilight Sparkle out of Celestia’s office. A lot was on his mind; on one hoof, he now knew the reason his magic worked like it did and on the other hoof he now also knew that his magic was not an integral part of him. Something which made him feel both sad and relieved in equal measure. Twilight led them down the stairs onto the second floor, a few stragglers still wandering the corridors, looking for their classrooms. Everyone was silent as they followed Twilight, and once they walked by a classroom with an open door, through which Ion saw a light orange unicorn swinging a large steel ball around the classroom as a bunch of smaller balls flew after it, attempting to collide with it. Then he was past the door and saw no more, Twilight was much more determined now each step she took moved her at an ever increasing pace towards some unseen goal. Her speed was such that everyone had to go at a fast trot to keep up with her. Soon they arrived at a door that proudly bore “Special studies, Professor T. Sparkle.” “Follow me now everypony.” And with that they entered the classroom, it was quite big, it had ten desks sitting in a horseshoe shape around a podium. One side of the walls had a series of large windows stretching all the way up to the roof. Shelves covered in books and an assortment of odd objects lined a few walls and all the way at the back, a room marked “Storage” proclaimed its purpose to the world. Twilight sparkle trotted up to the podium, lay her two front hooves on it to stabilize herself and then she spoke. “Alright everypony, draw yourself desks from the ring and bring them up to the podium.” As four desks floated towards the podium, Ion took notice of the magic holding them. Like his, they all had some strange quality to their magic. Honeysuckles grip on her desk left it glowing a deep molasses yellow; leaving drops of magic that faded out of view as she moved her desk. The blue unicorn with the toothpaste mane had her table with a more literal magical grip; the faint outline of a giant clawed hand gripping the table could be seen. The parts of the hand that were farthest away from the table were invisible. Most magic could only be seen when it was interacting with something, which is why objects glow when handled telekinetically by unicorns. Even as he watched the toothpaste pony’s table started cracking under strain of the magical claw’s grip. He deposited his own table next to the others, he had not had enough time to observe the ash colored pony’s magic however he did notice that the ash pony’s table was a deeper shade of brown now, and a small amount of smoke was drifting off the table surface. They all sat into their seats, front hooves on the table and back hooves jutting out underneath. Twilight Sparkle eyed them from her podium before speaking. “Right, seeing as you will be classmates for a long time, it is only natural you should get acquainted. We shall go clockwise, and I will start.” Her horn alighted and roughly 15 pages floated from a bag that lay next to the podium. They gathered on top of each other; stacking up neatly on the table. She floated one up in front of her muzzle. “I have prepared a carefully chosen essay on myself to help you reach greater unde- yes?” The unicorn with a toothpaste mane lowered her hoof, making a soft *click* as it hit the desk. “I don’t think you need an entire essay miss sparkle. You could just tell us the bare facts and let us figure it out ourselves.” Twilight looked taken aback, her mouth hanging half open. Then she seemed to come to her senses again. The papers jamming themselves back into the bag. “Errr yes, okay.” She cleared her throat. “I am Twilight Sparkle, and I will be your professor for this year, I have been to Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns and I will be teaching you rather unusual things. Because “broken unicorns” have not been seen in such great numbers in a long while.” She swept her gaze over the room, making sure everyone was listening. “My cutie mark is this six point star, it represents magic. My talent is magic and I pride myself on my knowledge. It is an honor to be teaching here. The reason I am teaching you, is because the princess feared and still fears that I may be a broken unicorn. Due to my magic being present in much higher quantities than usual.” Ion pondered on the words Twilight had used. For he was unfamiliar with the term ‘broken unicorn’ and it did not sound like a pleasant title to have put on you. “Now it is your turn.” Twilight pointed a hoof at the pony with the toothpaste mane. And she sat up straighter. Her cutie mark coming into view, it had the picture of an apple, bouncing of a pony’s head. “I am Colgate and I come from Trottingham. I am happy to finally find an explanation for the way my magic behaves and I hope to have a good time studying alongside all of you. Hopefully we will learn a lot this year!” Twilight sparkle nodded and pointed a hoof at Ion “Your’ turn Ion” Ion nodded. “I am Ion Clockwork, I come from Fillydelphia. I studied at the Fillydelphia center for advanced research and I enjoy mechanics. I too am pleased to find I am not alone in having an anomalous magic. And I hope that we may solve this mystery throughout the year” Twilight pointed at Honeysuckle. “You’re up next.” Honeysuckle gave a wide smile. “Hi! I’m Honeysuckle. I came here to learn about natural magic but instead I’m gonna learn about my own, and I am so excited!” Honeysuckle’s grin stretched on a bit longer than was comfortable. “I come aaallll the way from the equestrian highlands! But there is no snow there, only rain. Oh and there are sheep, lots of them and they keep going “BAAAA” every time I go by and it’s so funny and I can’t help but laughing and opening the gates!” Twilight was looking flustered now. “And I even brought honey, I love honey. I even have a cutie mark for honey and it is so nice because you can eat it or you can just drop it on the floor and it goes all like “SPLOOT” and the sound is so funn-“ She stopped to pull a deep breath. Twilight seized the opportunity. “Err, thank you Honeysuckle.” Honeysuckle looked up from the jar of honey she was stuffing her face into. Her muzzle coming up covered in the sticky liquid. Ion idly wondered how such a unicorn was chosen to come to this academy. “No problem, Miss Sparkle! Twilight breathed a sigh of relief before pointing at the ash colored pony. Who sat up a little straighter. “My name is Cinder; I came here because of a series of accidents involving setting a large portion of the Mareachussets University on fire.” There was a beat and nopony moved; Cinder gave a nervous laugh. “Uhm, maybe you should continue Miss Sparkle.” She seemed to come out of her sudden shock. “Yes, probably, I mean of course.” She paused for a second to collect herself. “As I said, you are here because of your anomalous magic, and to better help you come to terms with this we will begin by learning the term “Broken Unicorn” a term dubbed by Professor Egbert of the Fillydelphia center.” Ion mentally sorted through the list of names he remembered, and sure enough a cream white unicorn with glasses and an unhealthy obsession with the inner workings of magic swam to the front of his mind. Twilight levitated a massive blackboard behind herself and turned to it, bringing up a softly glowing bit of chalk. “A broken unicorn, is a unicorn that through unknown circumstances does not completely synchronize with their magic, it is hard to describe a single situation as every broken unicorn so far has had different circumstances. Some have become unreasonably powerful due to the inability to control it and a few have become…” She turned to them and grimaced before speaking. “Detached, from reality; Or in layman’s terms, insane. And in an effort to prevent that happening to you, we will be working together to analyze your magic and bring you in control.” She drew a series of images on the blackboard, a huge shapeless blob and a pair of ponies, looking pretty much identical. “This represents magic” She punctuated this statement by tapping the huge blob with the floating piece of chalk. “This a normal unicorn, you can visualize the connection like this.” She drew a thick line from the pony to the blob. “The normal unicorn can draw magic from the reservoir in our world whenever he or she wants. And he or she can control how much and where to direct, what form it should take etcetera. However the strength of this connection varies between unicorns and a strong mind is required to pull larger amounts of magic out of it.” She drew some squiggly lines around the thick line. “The flow can go from zero up to a maximum limited by their connection; however most unicorns do not hit this maximum within their connection unless interacting with objects related to their cutie mark, as this sharpens the mind considerably.” The chalk moved over to the second pony. “This pony represents a Broken Unicorn, and this the connection.” She didn’t draw anything, just pointed the chalk at the space between the Unicorn and the magic. “This is exactly the oddity, there is no true connection. They are simply sharing the same space, and instead of having to draw magic to itself a broken unicorn is constantly getting influxes of it. And the Unicorn mind is not built to withstand this, this results in anomalous properties in the magic, usually related to personality or interests. It is a defense mechanism that refines the magic in an effort to consume it. “ She turned back to the class. “The best way we can demonstrate is by doing, and as such we will dedicate this lesson to figuring out exactly what anomalous properties your individual magic’s have acquired. Now, who is ready to do some science?” She punctuated the statement by rubbing her hooves together enthusiastically and there was a general murmur of assent. “So who wants to go first?” Ion sighed internally and raised his hoof. “I am willing to cooperate in this magical experiment.” Twilight turned around and the Storage Door slammed open before she could reach for it with her magical grip. She seemed to stand for a second, perturbed. However she quickly recovered and out of the storage room came a series of objects; floating gently through the air before alighting upon the podium. “Please step up to the podium Ion.” Ion got out of his chair and made his way around the podium and up the small steps on the back, he observed the objects including a steel cube about four inches across and a series of wood blocks. Twilight started drawing on the board. “Alright everyone, what is our thesis statement for this experiment?” Cinder raised her hoof. “The objects will react in the way that they would usually do if a unicorn handled them?” Twilight wrote that on the board “Does everypony agree?” Everypony showed signs of consent. “Right, how would we go about testing this?” Honeysuckle raised a sticky hoof. “First we got to see it Miss Sparkle! See how it looks different!” Twilight turned to Ion. “Whenever you are ready, pick up the steel cube with your magic and hold it a couple inches off the surface of the podium” Ion nodded and reached within himself, the magic was there as always, a fluxing amorphous mass of indescribable consistency, constantly shifting and never easy to trap. Using his mind as a focus he tugged at it and drew it towards his medium, his horn. A sharp green glow started to emanate from his horn, the glow punctuated by soft crackling noises as short arcs of magic coalesced within it, before sparking to another area and disappearing. The cube was quickly surrounded by the same force as Ion reached out and touched it with his magic, the magic meeting resistance as it surrounded the cube, before tunneling into the cube and permeating its structure. Applying a modicum of force to it, Ion lifted it off the table, before stopping about 5 inches up. He held it there and turned to Twilight. Who nodded before turning to the rest of the ponies present. “Alright everypony, describe what outward signs show that this magic is anomalous.” Everypony raised their hoof. Twilight pointed to Colgate. “Well, the most obvious thing I can see here is that the magic is condensing into dense bolts and sparking across the visible cloud. It is in fact doing this in a manner similar to electricity.” Twilight nodded. “Ion’s magic is acting as if it was partly made out of electricity; sadly this is beyond our ability to explain. Electricity is still the domain of Professor Arcs, and he himself has admitted it is a volatile form of energy. What do we know about electricity?” Cinder raised a hoof. “It is a conduct for energy that can propagate itself through some metals and can be used in place of magic to power some of our devices. However harnessing it is still hard because it can only be obtained from lightning.” Twilight looked thoughtful for a second. “Put down the steel cube and pick up a wooden one.” Ion did as instructed, withdrawing his magic from the steel cube before wrapping it around one of the small wooden cubes, his magic did not perforate it, instead remaining on the outside of the item; the glow a good deal dimmer and the sparks merely hopping short distances. “Notice the dimming of the magic and lessening of the electrical arcs. This suggests to me that the magic behaves quite like electricity in the way that it reacts more readily to objects capable of carrying an electric charge. Please move it closer to the steel cube.” Ion slid the wooden cube through the air slowly, the glow around it becoming stronger as it neared the steel cube and just before it came within two inches, a strong arc shot out of the side of the wooden cube. Impacting the steel and causing it to glow a deep shade of green. Twilight merely observed, as did the rest of the students. Soon another bolt coalesced and one after another they struck the steel cube, pushing it away and leaving scorch marks on the podium where the cube had been touching it. Ion put the wooden cube down and retracted his magic. “We have disproven our thesis statement; the object acted like a storm cloud and struck the steel cube despite not containing any storm cloud particles prior to our test. And as such we must find a new statement.” Honeysuckle jumped up. “His magic is just like electricity!” Twilight turned to the board and wrote “Ion’s magic acts according to the laws that usually govern electrical currents.” She turned back to face the class “We need an expert on the subject to aid us, please excuse me.” She tensed down and her horn alighted with sparkling motes of magic, they quickly spread out before coming shooting back towards twilight. The air around her imploded as a sudden unicorn shaped hole formed in the spot she had just occupied. The silence stretched on, a minute passed by slowly; Ion shuffled his hooves a bit, his attention started to wander. Its search for a subject to interest it brought it to the Storage Door. He stared at it, it stared back. He shook his head, for he had been interpreting it as looking back at him. And for a second it seemed to wink at him, leaving him to turn back just as a resounding pop announced the return of Twilight Sparkle. She was not alone however, a purple unicorn with a singed grey mane was with her, his cutie mark covered by the rubber suit he was wearing up to his neck. “This is Professor Arcs, after I told him about the situation he was more than happy to come with me.” Professor Arcs gave them all a sweeping gaze, before turning his eyes on Ion. “So you are the one who manifests his magic as electricity?” Ion shook his head. “No sir, I manifest my magic with the properties of it however.” Arcs started rubbing his hooves together, the suit making a noise like cats informed of their death posthumously and catching up on all the shouting they should have done. “I would very much like to see that.” Ion nodded and levitated the steel cube again; as the sparks resumed their movements across the fabric of the magic Arcs’ eyes started lighting up. And before anyone could say anything he was at the podium, climbing towards the cube, reaching out. Ion panicked his memories flashing back to magic kindergarten. Sitting across from a filly, laughing at the gently sparking cubes he was trying to levitate. He pushed and pushed, the cube tittering slightly before lifting up an inch above the ground. The filly reaching out, her mouth open in wonder. The sizzle of burning hair that followed. Everything flashed forward to his final year at the Fillydelphia center, his visit to that filly. Paralyzed for life, she lay in her bed, her eyes watching, blaming. Ion broke out of his reverie, a shout splintering his normally stoic façade. “NO!” The soft squeak of Arcs touching the cube was the only sound in the classroom. Arcs looked at him, Ion eyed him back. And with a soft curl of the lips, Arcs laughed. “This is absolutely marvelous, the benefit a source of electric magic could be to my researc-“ He seemed to notice Ion’s haunted expression for the first time. “Have I done something wrong?” Arcs flicked his head around, looking at the class in turn. “I am sorry but am I missing something here?” The cube made a soft thud as it hit the podium. Ion looked at Twilight, his gaze revealing his troubles almost as much as the shout. Twilight nodded. “We shall be stopping for break everypony. Please remain seated until the bell rings.” Ion stumbled back off the podium and into his seat, Twilight pulled Arcs over to a corner and started discussing something Ion could not and cared not to hear. ‘Bong…’ A soft but insistent note filtered into the classroom, Twilight turned back to them. “You may leave for the mess hall if you wish to eat, break lasts thirty minutes. Ion, would you please stay here?” Ion nodded slowly, and remained sitting as his classmates filtered out the door. Meanwhile, in a cave not far away, Bonebird paced while she awaited her guest. Each step sending up soft violet embers from the stone floor.