Twilight was halfway through a hearty Sweet Apple Acres lunch when the Crusaders burst in, thereby showcasing both the best and worst things about spending time on the farm.
"Twilight, Twilight," Sweetie Belle gave her no time to get a word in, "we just saw that weird magic over under Fluttershy's bridge!"
Twilight finished her bite. Years of friendship with Pinkie Pie could give any pony a strong resistance to spit-takes.
"Okay," she said, taking a sip of water, "first, you all saw it? Second, what did you actually see?"
"Yeah," Apple Bloom said as Sweetie panted, "she shared the spell. And we saw a dozen or so, on the water under the bridge."
Twilight smiled. "She shared the spell? You mean she cast it on each of you? Sweetie, that's amazing progress!"
"Nah," Scootaloo said, "she just cast it once, it worked on all of us."
Twilight's smiled faded. "That's an incredibly advanced technique. Sweetie, I'm glad you got it right, but you need to be careful with advanced magic! How did you even learn that one? It wasn't in anything I showed you."
"I didn't do anything," Sweetie said, pouting. "I just cast it like I always do. Not my fault they got it too. Aren't you worried about that creepy magic?"
"Didn't you girls learn anything from the first time we met Zecora? Just because something's unusual doesn't make it evil. I'm more interested in how you managed to share a spell without knowing it."
"But," Sweetie said, "those ponies that chased me were really creepy, and that's the only other place we saw it!"
"I admit that is a bit worrying," Twilight said, "and we should look into it. But if you're using magic that advanced unintentionally, you might do something dangerous without even realizing it. Especially since you still don't have your cutie mark."
"Way to rub it in," Scootaloo muttered.
Twilight rolled her eyes. "Of course that's not it. It's just, most of the time if a pony does something way beyond her normal skill, it reveals her cutie mark. Since Sweetie didn't get hers, it makes me more worried she's doing something dangerous. Still, you're right about that strange magic, so let's do two things at once. Why don't I go with you girls to Fluttershy's, and have you show me where and how you saw it? I can look at your spell and we can also check out the area." She turned to Applejack. "Sorry, AJ. I was hoping to help you organize those notes, but the girls are right we should know what kind of magic's being done in town. And I want to make sure they stick to risking their lives in mundane antics. Rain check?"
"O' course, Twi," Applejack smiled at her, "I've been doing the books here for years, I can organize some notes and pictures and things. 'Sides, I reckon it'd take you near as long to explain how you organized 'em as it'll take me to do it myself. Get along, I'll show y'all the draft in a few weeks."
Twilight stared at her. "Given your sources, I think a few weeks is ambitious. But sounds good. Come on, girls."
"Hey Twilight," Apple Bloom said as they left, "we still want to interview you sometime. For our own book."
Twilight laughed. "Let's figure this out first, but I'm sure we can find time someday."
"Okay Sweetie," Twilight said, "show me what you did."
"I just cast it normally, like I said," Sweetie pouted, but obligingly lit her horn and hummed while her friends eagerly looked on. "There, see? Just like usual."
"You already cast it? I can't see anything different," Apple Bloom said.
"I can't either," agreed Scootaloo.
Sweetie groaned. "Really? What gives? That's what we've been doing all week!"
"Yeah," Scootaloo said, "I didn't see anything different."
"We weren't paying real close attention like that before," Apple Bloom said, "maybe that's the difference?"
"Maybe, though it shouldn't have anything to do with what you did," Twilight frowned. "Sweetie cast the spell, after all. Want to try again, or go look at that magic?"
"Let's try again," Sweetie said, "these two'll be bored if they can't see what we're talking about."
Scootaloo found herself getting bored regardless. After the third failure, she found her attention wandering. She glanced around, eyes finally settling on a flock of birds darting around Fluttershy's cottage. Despite being flightless herself, she was long since over pangs of jealousy when watching the birds, and loved watching how easily they darted among the branches and leaves. She followed several, smiling slightly. She caught sight of a bluebird skirmishing with a crow over the feeder and watched them dart in and out, each grabbing a bit of seed before being driven off, squawking. The crow dove, and a faint trail of blue energy lingered in the wake of its wings. Scootaloo twisted her head to look at Sweetie and Twilight and saw both surrounded by coronas of light.
"Hey, it worked that time!" All three ponies looked over at her.
"But Sweetie didn't do anything different," Twilight said.
"I told you," Sweetie grumbled.
"Scoots did," Apple Bloom said. "She hummed along."
"She did?" Twilight said.
"I did?" Scootaloo said.
"I knew the humming meant something," Twilight said, "but I haven't heard of this. This is fascinating! These last few days, so much to research, so little time! Sweetie, can you handle casting it one more time?"
"Sure."
"Okay Apple Bloom, this time you hum along too."
Before long, all three fillies could again see the glowing motes drifting around them, and the now slightly more faded crimson traces beneath the bridge. All four ponies moved over to take a look.
"Interesting," Twilight said, "how did this trail get only on the underside of the bridge?" She paused. "Celestia would have made me answer that. Girls, any ideas?"
The three fillies stared at the bridge. Sweetie Belle trotted across it several times, looking at all four of the exposed sides of the banks. Apple Bloom waded into the stream, which soaked her to the withers, and started rooting around among the rocks. Scootaloo glanced at the surrounding trees, hoping to see more of the motes on branches or caught on leaves. Seeing nothing, she looked back around again and caught a little smile on Apple Bloom's face as she splashed around.
"Hey," Scootaloo said, "that water's deep enough to swim in, if you're our size. Would the water wash the magic away?"
"Good idea," Twilight beamed. "The magic traces aren't like physical things, so it wouldn't wash away, but if the source of the magic didn't touch the rocks, there wouldn't be anything to stick to. And of course the water itself is long gone."
"Okay," Sweetie said, "but there's a good bit of magic on this bridge. She'd be leaving a trail, right? It's not far to the rapids either way, right girls?"
"Yeah," Apple Bloom said, "I remember when we explored it. Not far out of sight either way."
"Well what are we waiting for then? I'll go downstream, you go up, let's see if we can see where she left the water."
The fillies dashed off, and Scootaloo followed Sweetie while Twilight followed Apple Bloom. Not long later, though, both pairs met up again downcast.
"Okay, so no trail anywhere else," Sweetie grumbled. "Scoots, do you think she could have flown?"
"Maybe if she wasn't a pony," Scootaloo said. "A pegasus couldn't, though. I mean, she could have flown in. But we can't fly with wings half in the water. She'd have had to stand up and touch the rocks to leave."
"So she wasn't a pony, or she teleported," Apple Bloom said. "Either way how are we gonna track her?"
"I don't think we can," Twilight agreed. "We'll have to try to figure out what kind of magic this is, instead, which means research. And we can look into this spell sharing at the same time. Back to the castle, girls!"
"Uh, I think I need to help out around the farm," Apple Bloom said. "My sister needs more help so she has time to write."
"Yeah, uh, I think Rainbow Dash wanted someone to watch her tricks," Scootaloo said.
Twilight rolled her eyes. "Sweetie, do you want to help out?"
"Sure," she said, "that other stuff sounds boring. Besides, maybe I'll still get my cutie mark for magic!"
An hour later, Sweetie Belle had cause to reconsider her position. As soon as they'd arrived at the castle, Spike had intercepted Twilight with a hefty package from Canterlot. She'd assigned Sweetie some hefty tomes and then spread the contents of the package out over half of the library's large table. She'd been pouring over it and muttering ever since, leaving Sweetie to try to navigate the tomes herself.
Now she had Travels in Prance With Notes on the Native Magic open in front of her. She ran her hoof along the table of contents for the fifth time. The book was clearly a travel narrative first, and organized as such. She had no idea if the author, one Full Sail, was more likely to have encountered the crimson motes in, say, Maresneigh or Coltais. She thought back to Miss Cherilee's lesson about Prance. She could see the country's rough shape in her mind, but it was all flat blue. She'd seen most of them in the Everfree. Maybe it was a forest thing? She thought she remembered a big forest in Prance. Ardam, maybe? The half-recalled blue map wasn't narrowing the location down, and nothing looked like it in the table of contents.
She thought about just opening it to the first page, but instead she looked over at Twilight. The Princess was giggling and muttering to herself as she read over one of the papers. Sweetie thought she heard Pinkie Pie's name. Then Twilight looked up at her and her grin faded.
"Oh, Sweetie, is something wrong?"
"Not really. It's just...I'm not good at research like you. This is a book about some mare travelling in Prance. I was just trying to...to narrow it down."
"Oh." Twilight moved over and sat next to her. "Well, I have some bad news for you, Sweetie. Research is certainly a skill, and sometimes you can solve the puzzle. But sometimes it's just a lot of hard, frustrating work. You just find a book that looks possible and start at the beginning. You can learn to read faster, or skim better, but at the end of the day? There's only so much you can do."
"Oh," Sweetie said. "I guess I could do that. You don't think it'd make sense to start with forests? I remember Cherilee talked about one, the Ardam?"
Twilight laughed. "Well, it's as good an idea as any, I suppose." She glanced down at the table of contents. "Full Sail organized the chapters by the city she visited. The closest city to the Ardam is Cavalville. No reason not to start with that chapter." She looked over at the pile of papers again, then met Sweetie's eyes. "It might take a while. I understand if you want to go see your friends, I can look into it myself later."
"It's okay. Cherilee's research papers weren't bad, for homework. Besides, I want to be a good student."
Twilight's cheeks colored and her eyes sparkled. "Okay. I have to finish up with this stuff. It's the first batch of friendship problems Celestia wants us to look into! I've already picked out some good ones, I just need to go ask the girls if they're willing to go take a look. Applejack and I will be staying here, though. I need to hold my first few court sessions, and she's busy with her book. Besides, if this strange magic does turn out to be a real threat, I don't want all of us to be away. I'll be back in an hour or two to help you out. Deal?"
"Deal!"
Sweetie's high hopes for the Ardam Forest did not pan out. Full Sail had indeed visited it during her time in the nearby city, but it sounded nothing like the Everfree. It turned out it lay on Prance's border with the Neigherlands and was crisscrossed with roads and full of logging camps, cottages, and hamlets. Full Sail had found magic there, but nothing untamed or mysterious. Twilight returned as she was finishing the chapter.
"No luck?" Sweetie shook her head. "Well," Twilight continued, "the good news is, if we do figure it out, it might be a major breakthrough. Since we've already checked all the common sources, this is probably something really obscure. It might be part of the magical spectrum that nopony knew was usable!"
"But if nopony knows anything," Sweetie said, "aren't we wasting our time trying to look it up?"
"Maybe. But there's not much else we can do. Magical trails like that are notoriously difficult to study. The thaumic echo is about all you can get from it unless you know enough about the original spell to set up some kind of resonance. We could just start casting spells at it until something happened, I suppose, but that's even more of a long shot than hoping to find it in an exotic spellbook." Sweetie pouted. "Chin up! The girls were fine with heading off to handle those friendship problems. Other than court I've got at least a week without much else on my agenda. I'll figure this out, and you can help as much as you like. Even if you don't find anything useful for it, you'll learn a lot about magic. And maybe about Prance, too."
Sweetie managed a smile. "Okay. Rarity loves Prance, anyway. Maybe she'll take me someday and I can show off how much I know about it!"
"There you go! That's the great thing about books. If you don't learn what you were hoping to, you learn something surprising instead!"
Sweetie couldn't help but giggle at the Princess's eager tone, but she went back to hear reading.
Several days dragged by. She did learn a lot about Prance. Their royal magic was apparently a deep navy blue, with the countryside's traditional hedge magic registering mostly in greens and blues.
Then she read about the unicorn soothsayers of ancient Roam, an empire that fell far before the wendigos, so old and shrouded in mystery that nopony knew where its ruins lay, or even if it had been real at all. Their practices were reportedly barbaric. She nearly vomited at the graphic accounts of their pulling out the entrails of murdered birds and beasts with their charged horns, running magic through the still-warm viscera, trying to read the past and future. Their spells had drawn powerful energy, and they'd seen many things, but never the fall of their Empire, and nopony knew their spells, or if they told any futures at all, or just the whispers of ghosts. Despite the morbid methods, all the sources agreed their magical signatures were a rich Imperial purple.
Then she read about the priest-queens of Baybaylon, precursors to the Saddle Arabians. Though they weren't unicorns, indeed like the Saddle Arabians weren't even the same kind of ponies as Equestrians, they could use their magic to bring forth water and vegetation in the deserts. Whole cities rose around the bloodline of a single mare, then vanished into the dust with the end of her line. Sweetie imagined herself dressed in silks, sitting at the top of a tiered palace covered in gardens, at the center of a great city. She imagined water bursting from the top and running through fountains and in aqueducts all throughout the city, and knowing that her magic brought it forth and made the desert bloom. She knew, though, that this magic glittered silver or gold, like sunlight or moonlight sparkling on the water, and was not the answer to her search.
And then, a week had passed. The shadows were growing long with evening, a little earlier than before. The air was no longer quite so heavy with summer, either. A heavy slam drew her to look at Twilight, who had similarly just finished her own book.
"Right then," she let out a long sigh, "I think it's time to give up on the books. The underside of that bridge is pretty sheltered from the elements, but if we wait much longer, the residue might start to wear off anyway. Let's go collect some and take it to the basement for testing. Just throwing spells at it is a long shot, but I think we're out of other good options. Besides, I want to see if you can pick up other spells as easily as you got that detection one. That should help us narrow down your special talent."
Sweetie grinned. "I like that idea. Some of those books were really interesting, but I'm tired of sitting around."
Twilight collected what looked to Sweetie like a fancy sponge on the end of a pole, and they trotted over to Fluttershy's bridge. They turned on their detection magic. It let Sweetie see the slightly faded residue, and see that, much like a mop, Twilight was able to absorb it with the spongy end of the stick to bring back to the basement.
"Okay," she said as they descended the stairs to the basement, "it might take a lot of spells before we find anything that reacts. Don't get discouraged. It'll be good for you just to learn--"
She cut off as soon as she reached the bottom of the stairs. The whole sponge-head of the collector was glowing with intense crimson light.
"It's reacting already? We haven't even cast a spell! It must have a resonance with one of the items I have stored down here..."
Sweetie's heart felt heavy. She swallowed, trying to clear the sudden lump in her throat. She hoped her guess was wrong, but didn't think it would be. "The amulet."
Twilight tilted her head, then nodded slowly. She slid the distant drawer open with her magic, revealing the Alicorn Amulet. As soon as she did so, the crimson light leapt from the sponge-head through the air in a torrent. It washed over the amulet, then swirled into the large centerpiece gem before being consumed. No trace of it remained visible to their magic sight, only a few dark motes swirling around the amulet. Both ponies stared at it in silence.
"I think," Twilight said, "it's time to write a letter to Celestia."