//------------------------------// // Ch.11 - Song of Storms Pt.1 // Story: A Change of Weather in Ponyville // by MLPDavester //------------------------------// Alright. Sorry about the long wait everypony. The last week I was supposed to get up a few chapters for everyone, but my train of thought just wasn't in my story due to the week off having no creativity on my side, and also partly to do with all of the Mass Effect 3 hype going on. Speaking of which I will be attempting to get a good 3-4 chapters out this week if I'm lucky since ME3 is going to end up taking some of my previously pony-filled spare time for the hype of its release. Sorry about that. Anyways, here is the newest chapter, minus the terrible sleep-deprived train of thought. ~Sweet Apple Acres~ “I’ve got your solution right here.” Maghus gestured towards his blue horn as he concluded his short speech. Everypony save for Twilight all stared at Maghus as if he were crazy. They all had confused looks on their faces as they all wondered how one unicorn that had just happened to arrive in Ponyville the day before could possibly solve such a big problem. None of them could even consider what to say save for Pinkie, who of course blurted out the first thing to come to mind. “What are you talking about silly filly?” Pinkie giggled as she was suddenly inches in front of Maghus, giving his horn a gentle poke with one of her hooves. “You can’t get rid of clouds with that! You’ll just make your head go ‘POOF’ right through them without doing anything, duh.” Pinkie then just as suddenly was back over with the rest of the group, casually bucking apples while the others turned their confused faces on her while she hummed to herself. “O….k?” Maghus said as he tried to comprehend what had just happened. Twilight and the others couldn’t help but laugh a little as Maghus had yet to get used to Pinkie being…well Pinkie. He shook his head slightly to clear his mind as he proceeded to explain. “What I meant was that my magic is the solution Pinkie.” “Oh, I know what you meant.” Pinkie giggled as she continued to buck the tree she was standing under. “I just think it’s funny to look at the looks on everypony’s faces when they don’t understand what I’m doing or saying.” She continued giggling as she then glanced at no one in general. “Right everypony?” “Uh…Pinkie?” Maghus tried to attract the pink mare’s attention as she started laughing for no apparent reason. Maghus’ head continued to tilt sideways slightly as he tried to even remotely understand the strange resident of Ponyville that was such good friends with Twilight. “I…wait…huh?” Maghus then slumped over to rest on his flank as his mind went into overdrive trying to figure out what was going on. “Ah think we lost him girls.” Applejack replied as everypony except Pinkie laughed a bit at Maghus’ expression. Everypony laughed while Twilight gave Maghus a gentle nudge in the side to snap him out of his trance. “Huh?...Where was I again?” Maghus asked as he shook his head, still trying to make a little sense of the current situation. “You were just about to mention your big problem-solver Einstein.” Rainbow Dash replied while she flew from tree to tree, shaking branches free of their apples while Fluttershy caught them in barrels below with the help of some animals from her cottage. “Haha, very funny Rainbow.” Twilight retorted as her friend shrugged her shoulders as she proceeded to fly through the trees. She then turned to Maghus to try and get things back on track amidst the stormy weather around them. “You were mentioning something about how your magic would help, remember?” “Right, right.” Maghus replied as he scratched his chin with his hoof, quickly composing himself for his explanation. He had never had to really explain his special situation with magic before, save for when he had the meeting with Princess Celestia, Moonbeam and Twilight 7 years ago. He wasn’t quite sure how to explain. He then turned to Twilight, a slight glimmer of hope in his eyes. “You mind helping me out with this Twilight?” “I…I guess?” Twilight replied, a little confused as to why Maghus needed her help to explain something as simple as magic unless…of course! He needed a little help explaining how HIS magic was going to help. Twilight then nodded her head to show that she understood what Maghus was getting at. Maghus then turned to face the others, who were mostly paying attention to Twilight and Maghus while still focussing enough to save as many apples as they could before the storm could possible ruin them. He took a deep breath as he proceeded to explain his solution in as simple words as possible. “You all know about magic of course.” Maghus waited a moment, not at all surprised by the looks he received from everpony that said ‘Really? You’re asking if we know what magic is?’ He then channeled a small portion of magic through his horn, enough to create a small white cloud directly above his head. This quickly produced a few gasps of surprise from the group, the loudest happening to come from Rainbow Dash. “How are you doing that?!” Rainbow screeched as she flew forward to attempt to place a hoof on the small cloud as a test to see if it was a real cloud or not. As nature would dictate, her hoof stayed put once placed on the cloud, and she proceeded to give the cloud a slight nudge to test its movement as well. Once this was done, she then landed a few feet in front of Maghus and Twilight, a confused and suspicious look on her face as Maghus continued. “In simple words. Magic.” Maghus stated matter-of-factly. This did nothing to sate anypony’s curiosity however, making Maghus give Twilight a small look that said ‘Help?’ “What he means is that his magic, like mine, is special.” Twilight stated to her friends. The ever present looks of confusion prompted her to continue explaining however. “His magic is special because it can actually control and manipulate the weather itself.” “Weather magic?” Rainbow crossed her hooves against her chest, sitting on her flank as she did so. Her face quickly turned to an expression of denial and disapproval as Maghus stepped forward to continue speaking. “Yes, Rainbow Dash. Weather magic.” Maghus nodded his head slightly. “That was what allowed me to spin you and Pinkie on that cloud that you rained on me with yesterday, remember?” Rainbow’s look of realization gave Maghus the opening he needed to make a slight crack at her expense. “What? Did you think I just used normal magic to spin the cloud like that? I know for pegasi it’s possible if you fly fast enough, my parents have shown me once or twice. But for unicorns it’s practically impossible. Watch.” Maghus then used his magic to spin the small cloud ever so gently, leaving a small white mist around while the moisture inside spun around on the spot. “Now you try Twilight.” “Huh?” Twilight asked, slightly confused why her old friend would ask her to do such a strange thing. It was a small cloud that was only slightly larger than her own head, how hard could it possibly be? “O…Ok, I guess.” Twilight then proceeded to concentrate on the small cloud, gently flowing more and more magic into her horn as no results were even slightly apparent in the fluffy object in front of her. Her horn began to glow a very bright purple as the magical buildup began to rise slightly higher than was safe. Maghus noticed quickly enough however, having seen the results of such a buildup plenty of times in Canterlot when he and Twilight were younger. He placed a hoof gently on Twilight’s shoulder to calm her down as he expression began to turn to a deep scowl of frustration. “It’s alright Twilight. You can stop now.” Twilight’s horn then lost its bright colouring as everpony looked dumbfounded at Maghus like he was an alien, all of them having completely lost all thought on continuing to buck the trees. Maghus then turned back to the group, chuckling slightly as he looked at all of their faces. “Yes, I know. I’m a weirdo because I can do something nopony else can. Yippee for me.” Maghus shook his head slightly, laughing a little to himself as everypony else regained their composures, now more eager to hear what Maghus had for a solution to the weather problem. “So what’s your big solution then weather-brain?” Rainbow asked, still in the mood for cracking jokes at Maghus after what had happened the day before. Maghus smirked as he prepared his reply to Rainbow’s question. “Simple. I move the clouds somewhere else, duh.” Maghus couldn’t help but fall back laughing as Rainbow’s jaw dropped, her joke completely ruined. He then climbed back to his feet, clearing his throat slightly. “At least I wish it were that simple.” Maghus groaned inwardly as he took a glance at the dark storm clouds approaching the farm. “Those clouds came over the Everfree forest, right?” Maghus asked Rainbow, quickly coming to the assumption that she worked for the Weather Factory in Cloudsdale in some way. “Yeah.” Rainbow nodded, a little confused at the obvious question. “It wasn’t meant to though, it kind of happened by accident since they had to gather so many for the storm.” “Great, just great…” Maghus groaned as he shook his head in frustration. “This is going to complicate things a bit.” Rarity then spoke up, having been quite the entire time. “Will it take long? My mane is already soaking wet, so the sooner I can get cleaned up and fix it, the better.” “That’s just like you Rar’. Always worryin’ ‘bout yer mane whenever the weather gets nasty.” Applejack retorted, the two quickly about to go into a relapse of the sleepover a year ago. “Girls!” Twilight snapped, quickly getting a handle on the situation before all chaos broke loose amidst the group. “Let Maghus finish!” Maghus blushed slightly at Twilight’s determination to keep things focussed on him. He quickly composed himself, though once again his blush was caught by Rarity’s quick eyes. “The thing is, it’s not going to be easy to move this storm. Simply moving it from one place to another won’t protect anything from the storm itself. So I’m going to have to attempt to actually teleport the storm to the other side of Ponyville, therefore leaving all the decorations intact.” “But you said yourself that you have the ‘special’ magic to do stuff like that. Why would this be so hard?” Rainbow inquired as the others trotted over to form a semi-circle in front of Maghus, all caution about the trees thrown to the wind(no pun intended). “Yes I did.” Maghus nodded his head. “But the fact it came over the Everfree Forest makes it slightly more unpredictable and harder to control. As things are, I’m going to have to break up the clouds into sections, and then teleport them individually instead of as a whole group. “Well then, what’re we waitin’ for?” Applejack replied as she stepped forward. “Let’s get started!” Everypony save for Maghus put there hooves together in a circle, ready to tackle to problem. They all looked at Maghus with confused faces however as he bit his lower lip slightly out of anxiety. “Something wrong dear?” Rarity asked as the group lowered their hooves to the ground. Maghus looked like he was hiding something important, something that was very crucial to how he was going to get rid of the storm. “I…guess you could say that.” Maghus replied as he looked at the six mares standing in front of him, all with worried or confused looks on their faces. Maghus sighed as he prepared for the inevitable. “The thing is…you all have to leave while I do this.” Everypony stepped back in shock as he spoke those words. Fluttershy of anypony was the first to ask the question on everypony’s mind. “But why?” “It’s very unstable magic I’m dealing with. Dealing with a raincloud or two or simple enough…but…” Maghus looked down at the ground, taking a shuddering breath as a few tears dropped from his eyes. Everypony gasped at the sudden change in his attitude, realizing that this was a bigger deal than they previously imagined. “This storm is already dangerous enough as it is. When I attempt to break it into parts it’ll become very wild and hazardous to anypony nearby. Once it’s all teleported it’ll be fine, but until then I have to ask all of you to go home and take shelter.” Maghus then turned to Applejack, since her home was going to be very close to what he would be performing. “Applejack, you need to take everyone from your home and get them somewhere else in Ponyville. It won’t be safe here, even in your house should a stray bolt of lightning or something hit the house while I’m breaking the storm apart.” Applejack nodded her head solemnly in agreement knowing that now was not the time for petty arguments given the circumstances. Everypony else then proceeded to trot off towards Ponyville and safety. “Hold on a sec Twilight.” Maghus said as he placed a hoof on her shoulder. Twilight looked at him quizzically while she gestured towards the others to keep going. Everyone except Rarity continued back, while Rarity hid in some bushes to see what she believed to be something important to Maghus given the small blushes she had seen him give Twilight since he had arrived. “What is it Ma…” She was quickly cut off by Maghus’ lips attached to hers, not in a forceful way, but with a gentle touch that came quickly. After a moment, Maghus broke the kiss, looking at Twilight with a half-loving, half-terrified expression on his face. Her face was completely emotionless, her mind blank after what she had just experienced. “Maghus?” Maghus just simply smiled slightly as a few tears escaped his eyes and travelled down his muzzle. He knew from her tone that she didn’t hate him for what he had done, but that she didn’t know what to think about what had happened. He was slightly surprised however as Rarity climbed out of the bushes towards them, a smile and a tear on her face as she guided Twilight back to Ponyville with a nod from Maghus. Everything now taken care of, Maghus turned towards the oncoming storm clouds, a new sense of determination and courage in his heart as he had finally confessed his feelings to Twilight after so long apart. “Alright then, let’s save us a celebration.” Alright, so I was going to do this in one part, but realized that it would end up being a much longer chapter than most. So I'll leave it on a cliffhanger for now, and then update later this evening with the second half, as well as the introduction of the first of four OC's to enter my story. Cheers everypony.