//------------------------------// // Chapter 13. // Story: Equestria Girls and The Golden Bell // by Sparky Brony //------------------------------// Twilight Sparkle follows her new friends into the Divination classroom. Pinkie Pie bounces over to her table as Twilight sits down next to Sunset Shimmer. Rarity takes her own table behind both her and Sunset. She looks at the crystal ball sitting before her. Sunset has one sitting before her like for every other student in the classroom. Twilight puts her bag down and looks up. Pinkie is sitting there with some kind of purple turban on her head, a big jewel on her forehead with a lavender feather sprouting up from the gem. She’s even got a deep purple scarf around her neck. Twilight opens her mouth to say something when the teacher comes in and greets the room. Twilight joins the other students in responding to the teacher, who starts to talk to the students about the mysteries of the crystal ball. Twilight watches intently. Before finding out that magic was real, she had always thought crystal balls were a bunch of malarkey, but now, after being exposed to both Equestrian magic back home, and the magic here, she is finding her attitude on many things she used to ignore has changed. She listens to the teacher speak of the crystal ball. She again is drawn to Pinkie Pie, who seems to be struggling to see anything through the ball. Then she glances at Sunset and she gasps softly. Sunset’s eyes are pure white and glowing softly. Her breathing has stopped for the moment, and her entire being seems to be focused on what she’s seeing. Twilight reaches a hand out to get Sunset’s attention when her friend suddenly screams out and her hands glow, launching the crystal ball across the room like a cannonball Twilight moves over and hugs Sunset as she tries to recover from her vision. The teacher attempts to get her to try again, but Sunset refuses. After a bit, Sunset offers Twilight a softly comforting smile and gestures for her to take her seat back. Twilight reaches out her hand to touch the ball, only to be stopped by a sharp sniff from Professor Trelawney, “You never touch the crystal ball with your bare hands; you could easily smudge it. You either use magic or the black silk that I’ve provided you all.” She comes up to Twilight, “Your friends seem to have some modicum of the Sight. Let’s see what you can do.” Twilight gingerly picks up the ball with the silk. She cradles the ball as she looks through it. After a moment, a sheen of opaqueness slides across the surface of the ball, making it seem milky white to her eyes. She gasps as she looks closer. “Tell me what you see.” Comes the professor’s voice. Twilight stares for a long moment, “Colors...” Twilight murmurs. “Oh, that’s wonderful, tell me, are you seeing some nice greens or blues? Perhaps violet?” Twilight shakes her head, her eyes still glued to the ball in her hands. “Yellow, red, orange,” she says, “in waves, alternating.” “Those are dangerous colors to see when gazing into the crystal,” Professor Trelawney hisses as she recoils away from Twilight, “Those are the colors of pain, and death.” She stands up, her eyes rolling back into her head for a moment, then her hand flashes out, “You,” she opens her eyes to see that she’s pointing at a very surprised Rarity, “You shall die a death most violent.” Twilight looks up at her, “I am not seeing my fate here, Professor, but that of another.” She gazes back into the ball. “I see a boy, become man, hardened by war, strife and suffering. A boy who has seen death. He is known to us, but unknown to himself.” Closing her eyes for a moment, Twilight shakes her head before her wand glows brightly enough to be visible through her robe, opening her eyes, they begin to glow bright white as a vision fills her mind, “The scales are balanced on the point of a sword, once light, now dark, the arms tip towards. A choice to be made; to stand, or flee, a life or a death may not be free. Two must choose, their fates intertwined. To stand and fight, or run and hide. For in this test of fire and death, if one doth fail, the other shall not draw another breath.” Twilight blinks several times and shakes her head vigorously, “Death, destruction, ruins of a castle, its walls fallen, its gates destroyed. The helix rises around the staff, in that moment choice, a life… or all our lives.” She stops and shakes her head slowly in disbelief as the glow in her eyes slowly fades, “I’m sorry, that’s all I know, all that I saw.” Professor Trelawney pats Twilight gently on the shoulder, “That is a very good attempt for someone new to touching the Sight.” She stands up, her voice rising to be heard by the entire class, “The colors she mentioned were important, though if you ever see black when you are scrying. That is death, destruction, pain, hatred, it is the most grave of omens.” She moves towards another student. Twilight nudges Sunset. “Are you okay?” Sunset nods. “I think so.” She glances at the crystal ball before her, then up at the teacher, “I think I will try again. Maybe we can learn something about Grogar?” Rarity leans forward, “Darling, if it’s too much for you, maybe you should leave it be?” Sunset smiles gratefully to Rarity, then she turns back to the crystal ball, “I’ve got to know what is going on here.” She sighs and uses the silk on the table to pick up the ball, Twilight watches intently as Sunset gazes through the ball for a long time as the teacher continues talking about the history of its use, both in muggle history, and in the wizarding world. Twilight touches Sunset’s shoulder, getting a very short yelp from her friend. Sunset looks at her. “I was concentrating,” she grumbles. Twilight shakes her head. “The first time you were able to make it work, you were looking at it on the stand, not holding it. It didn’t work for me just looking at it, I had to hold it. Maybe that makes a difference, remember, you are Equestrian, not of this world.” Sunset shrugs as she puts the ball down. “You’ve got a point there, Twilight.” She says softly. She leans forward and looks into the depths of the ball while Twilight watches her. After a long moment, Sunset’s eyes cloud a bit, but it only lasts a few moments. Sunset grabs her jacket from her bag and pulls it on. “Did it get cold in here?” Twilight shakes her head. “What did you see?” Sunset shivers for a long moment, her blue eyes showing her fear. “Paying attention isn’t just for the students from here, Miss Sparkle.” comes Professor Trelawney’s voice, getting both girls to look at her, “I need everyone in class listening to what I have to say.” Both girls look down as the Professor continues. *** Twilight bounces into Transfiguration class. She glances around. Hermione is already sitting at her seat, two books in front of her, a feather quill in her hand hovering over parchment. It seems most of the other students haven’t made it in yet. She slides quickly into the seat next to the frizzy haired girl. Hermione glances over and smiles at Twilight, but quickly returns to writing. “Class hasn’t even started yet, Hermione,” Twilight says. Hermione shrugs her shoulders.“Just finishing up my thoughts on my notes from Care of Magical Creatures.” She stops and looks at Twilight. “Have all of your friends been touched by Equestrian magic?” Twilight nods as she starts to pull her own materials out of her bag. Instead of parchment, she’s got a thick notebook, along with several ballpoint pens. She offers one to Hermione, who smiles before shaking her head. “I’ve gotten used to using a quill.” She continues writing as other students start filing into the classroom. A redheaded boy, along with a dark haired boy with round wire rimmed glasses take up position in front of their table. The redhead turns back and looks at Hermione and Twilight. “Blimey, Hermione, don’t you ever stop?” “Ron,” She huffs, “If you would take your own notes, then you wouldn’t have to borrow mine all the time. Then maybe I wouldn’t have to be so thorough.” She looks up, “And if you paid attention in class…” She trails off at the grin on Ron’s face, finally settling on a dirty look as she gathers up some of her work and sends it into her bag with a flick of her wand. The other boy, Twilight takes a moment to remember his name, Harry, turns and smiles at her. “I’ve never met an American witch before.” Twilight smiles, “Well, it’s good to meet those from new places, right?” He nods. “Twilight Sparkle.” He chuckles, “Now that’s a name, do all of you have names like that? Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy. Talk about some unusual names there.” Twilight glances at Hermione, then back at Harry. “I don’t know, some of us have unusual names, and some of us have more common names, I would guess.” She smiles, “Though after spending time here, some of your names are very odd to us. I guess it’s just a difference from being an ocean apart.” That answer seems to mollify him for a moment, then he looks at Hermione. “So, do you spend a lot of time with muggles back home?” Hermione looks at Harry and then Twilight, worry in her eyes as she speaks with feigned shock, “Harry! That’s not a polite question to ask.” Twilight stiffens slightly before responding, she had actually read up on this the night before, “Well, since we aren’t from Ilvermorny, we do spend much of our time with no-mags. Rappaport’s law was repealed in 1965 and since, the American magical community has done much to modernize and normalize relations, much like how the United Kingdom witches and wizards operate. Live in peace among the no-mags, concealing our identity, but trying to be a part of society.” Letting out a quick breath, Hermione nods to Twilight in approval of her answer, even if it was a bit textbookish for the situation. Twilight takes a moment to look at Hermione before going on, “In reality though, before I met Sunset and the others, I didn’t really hang around No-Mags, I spent almost all my time alone, locked up in my room or lab studying. It’s because of them, their trust, their friendship, that I’m here now.” Ron smiles and claps his friend on the shoulder. he looks at Twilight. “I’ve seen you use magic, I’m still wondering why your wands glow, but what’s odd is that you girls do a lot of silent spellwork. That’s only supposed to be near the end of your schooling.” Twilight is at a loss for words; she doesn’t even have the beginnings of enough knowledge to understand why, though Hermione saves her. “Words are patterns of thought given sound. Magic is patterns of thought given form. If you are magic, if you are one with the magic, the words no longer become necessary,” she says primly. Twilight suppresses the desire to look gratefully at Hermione. Instead, she watches Ron intently, he nods thoughtfully, “You have a point there, Hermione, you don’t say the spells nearly as much as we did first year.” He turns back as the teacher comes into the room. “Good morning, class.” Minerva McGonagall says in her customarily stiff manner, looking around at all the students. She walks to the head of the class. “Today is going to be busy.” Her wand comes out. “Many of you have your own familiars.” She looks around. “You have fifteen minutes to retrieve them.” Twilight joins many of the students in a dash for the door. She’s heard enough about how merciless Professor McGonagall can be when it comes to tardiness. She pounds up the steps to the door to their dorm room. “Spike,” She calls out as she slams through the door. She looks around to see her dog is curled up on her bed, his head slowly perking up. He smiles sleepily at her. “What’s up?” She scoops him up, answering, “Act like a dog, okay?” she says as she rushes back down to the classroom. As she retakes her seat, she sees Harry has a white owl, Hermione has an enormous orange cat sitting before her. At the sight of Hermione's large orange cat, Spike stands, raises his tail, and bares his teeth. Growling low, he narrows his eyes at the offending predator before looking at Twilight and moves up to nuzzle her cheek whispering to her, "What? You said act like a dog. And you know how well I get along with Opal." He whispers into her ear, getting a scratch and a hug from her. A loud bang has the door shutting and the professor walks to the head of the class, a raven on her shoulder. “As we are hosting the Tri-Wizard tournament at Hogwarts this year. We are going to have some spells that have been used during some of the events. This spell was used to animate simple wooden structures so the champions could choose their dragons.” She taps the raven on the beak with her wand and says, “Draconifors.” The raven sneezes and turns into a small dragon, inky black scales and a vicious looking beak. She reaches and offers the dragon a small bit of meat, which it gobbles down, then it spreads it’s wings wide for a moment. She looks around at the students, “Your turn.” Twilight draws out her wand, looking at the other students as they perform the spell. The professor hands out more ravens to the students who don’t have their own pets, or familiars. She glances at Hermione, her cat is now a very feline looking dragon, wings folded at his sides as he walks back and forth in front of her. Twilight looks at Spike, whose eyes have gotten very round, looking at all those being transformed around him. She extends her wand and taps him on the nose. “Draconifors.” Spike’s eyes cross as he looks at the wand and he quickly reforms into a dragon himself, complete with deep purple scales and a green ridge starting above his forehead and going all the way back to his tail. He shakes his head and stands on two legs. That gets a gasp from Twilight, he looks exactly how Sunset said Spike from Equestria looks as a baby dragon. He sits down heavily. “Wow, that was weird.” Twilight looks up. Professor McGonagall is standing there, her mouth pursed in a frown, “Excuse me, Twilight, but is ‘that’ what dragons look like where you come from?” Twilight cringes, does Professor McGonagall know about Equestria. Spike stands up and puffs out his chest. “Eeyup,” he says proudly, getting the professor to take a step back. Ron looks back at Spike? “Where are the wings?” Spike turns to him. “I’m an earth dragon; we’re stronger and tougher than fliers. We may not take to the air, but few can match us in brute force and firepower.” He drops to all fours, digging his claws into the table a little before he says, "Rawr." Not an actual dragon roar, but he's still a baby dragon after all. As if to prove his point, Spike breathes out a green gout of flames that swirls and puffs all of about two feet. The professor moves on, praising Hermione on her work with her cat, who is now curled up around her shoulders, snoring softly. Twilight looks over at Harry, who’s owl is now a large snow white serpentine dragon. She glances at Spike. “Where did you get that thing about earth dragons?” He shrugs and sits down on his rear, his tail waving back and forth. “Don’t know; it just came to me.” Twilight sighs as Professor McGonagall steps to the front of the class. “And now, how to reverse that particular spell.” *** Twilight walks down towards the lake after lunch. Spike, once again restored to being his canine self, bounces around her as she walks. She finds a shade tree that’s not too far from the water. She has a full load of books in her pack, as well as a few in her arms as she walks. There’s a nice tree not thirty feet from the water. She shifts the books to one hand and draws her wand. She looks at her wand a moment, smiling at what it means to her. Some of the spells come to mind as she waves the wand over the grass. It quickly grows and weaves itself into a thick mat. She doesn’t have to sit on the bare ground, so she takes a seat with a smile, then giggles, as Spike splashes through the water, barking furiously. “May I join you?” comes a familiar voice. Twilight twists to see Hermione sitting there, a pile of books in her own hands. Twilight gestures for the other girl to sit. Hermione extracts her own wand, and with a muttered spell, expands the mat a bit for herself. Her own cat nuzzles her and gallops off to chase Spike. Who, for his part, yelps a bit, but soon seems to enjoy playing with the large orange cat. “What’s his name?” Twilight asks. Hermione watches the two play back and forth for a moment. “Crookshanks.” She looks over at Twilight, “I suspect he’s half-kneazle.” She smiles at Twilight’s confused expression, then she pulls out a book, flicking through the pages, then she hands the book to Twilight. “He’d been in the Magical Menagerie for a long time. He was rather choosy when it came to who bought him.” She points to the entry about Kneazles “They tend to have a very high level of intelligence,” she explains, “they are exceedingly independent, and have an uncanny ability to detect suspicious and distrustful people, even if they are transfigured.” She takes a moment to tell Twilight about Peter Pettigrew. Hermione brings out a parchment and a small writing case, in addition to a couple of books arrayed around her. She thinks for a moment. “There’s much more to Spike than him being a dog, isn't there?” She looks up at Twilight. “When you turned him into a dragon, that’s an Equestrian dragon, wasn't it? I know almost every type of dragon there is from the books, and he is something different.” Twilight nods, “They actually really different. My counterpart, the Twilight Sparkle who lives in Equestria, well, has a baby dragon named Spike. I suspected there was some kind of connection between her Spike and mine, but I didn’t know how deep the connection really was.” She glances at the two playing. “But I found out today.” Hermione “The learning never stops, does it?” Twilight shakes her head with a big smile. “Nope.” Both girls lapse into silence for a while as both of them get into their classwork. Before too long, Hermione stops and looks at Twilight. “You are taking this magic well. The only one to really use magic before was Sunset herself, right?” Twilight rubs her arms for a moment, then she pulls her wand from her robes. “I’ve been studying this for a long time. I didn’t know about the portal to Equestria, and how is used to open every thirty moons, but the magic of that portal touches our world, and it has lasting effects throughout the city.” She looks down. “I didn’t know what it was at first. I had to nearly destroy the world in the quest to know more to find out what that magic meant.” She holds herself as though the world has suddenly become colder, “It took Sunset, with her knowledge and power, to bring me back.” “I doubt the MACUSA would have allowed all of that to happen.” “That’s the thing, the general amount of magic there, and it being benign for so long, I don’t think they even realized it. I stole the magic from my friends using technology I built in the science lab at Crystal Prep. Every taste of that magic was so enticing. So much power, so much life.” She curls her lips into a guilty smile and shivers like a reformed problem gambler recalling long nights hunched over the poker table. “I didn’t fully understand it then, but I craved it. I wanted it all. It was like I was so starved before that, I was drinking from a rushing river.” “How did Sunset show you?” Twilight sighs, “She was able to use the same tech. She had her friends willingly give her their magic, and she used it on herself. She became as powerful with magic as I had become, and she used it to show me that there was another way -- a better way, to touch the magic, and to have friends. Those that would be much better giving of themselves to each other and to me, rather than me taking what they had. I didn’t have friends before that. I was a bookworm who spent all their time reading, studying, learning. I had no concept of what friendship truly meant.” Twilight looks over at Hermione. “She saved me, and I don’t know what I would have done without her help.” Hermione looks at Twilight for a long time. “Let me ask you a question.” At Twilight’s nod, she continues, “The power within you, did you gain it from them? Were you still connected to them?” Twilight shakes her head, and that gets a smile from Hermione, “I think you are reading it wrong, you had that magic within you already. What you did with your technology, you used the magic you had taken from them, and used it as a conduit to the power already within you.” She pulls out her own wand. “Much like how a wand works, it allows you to touch the power within you. Advanced mages can use magic without their wands. Those who don’t know about their magic but when put under duress sometimes do. That’s how we find wizards and witches. Harry did, before he came to school, he made things happen.” She smiles. “I did too. Both of my parents are muggles. They were immensely surprised to find out their daughter was a witch. But the point is that power that you touched then, it was already a part of you. And by your learning, by your searching for that knowledge, for that power, it was the magic already within you. The MACUSA should have found all of you girls well before this.” Twilight huffs, “But Rarity had never used that magic before. She’s ponied up, she has used Equestrian magic directly. But never magic like this.” She flops onto her back on the mat. “Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy can grow wings, and they are born naturals when it comes to flying around here. Applejack and Pinkie Pie are super strong, though Pinkie is able to do things that I don’t think I could ever do with a wand.” That gets a laugh from Hermione, “Maybe I’m wrong, but for you, I can certainly see a pent up magical frustration in what you were saying happened. You had potential, it was trying to come out. And when you were able to touch it, with that technology, was it the most beautiful thing you had ever experienced?” Twilight nods, “It was like touching light, it was like touching pure heat without being hurt by it. It felt normal, it felt natural.” “It was natural, Twilight. You should have been at Ilvermorny; you would have been a fine student there.” Her face darkens, “That you weren’t able to learn the way a witch should learn. And you searching for it on your own, there is another term that applies to what happened to you.” She shudders softly as she continues, “That creature that came out with the magic, that seemed a part of you and was hungry, perhaps even desperate to be able to use the magic, was an obscurus.” “A what now?” “When a young witch or wizard is unable to use their inborn abilities, their magic, it manifests as pressure inside them at first. And that pressure builds, it can take years, or even decades, for the pressure to get high enough. And sometimes, the young mage bursts, and what comes out is an obscurus; it’s a manifestation of their magic.” “Are the others in danger of that happening?” Hermione shrugs, “I’m not certain, I’ll have to read up more on that, but I don’t think so. You had said before that when Sunset wore the Equestrian element of magic on her brow, she changed, too, also into a demon?” Twilight nods. Hermione bounces a little. “She had been in our world for years of years and couldn’t use her magic, right?” Again, Twilight nods, “So, that was the first time, after a lifetime of using magic, then being unable to use her magic for years?” Twilight nods. “Yes, she hadn’t used it since she came through the portal.” Hermione claps her hands together. “She had almost the same problem, that was a manifestation of an obscurus. And she wanted to use that magic, but the other Twilight was able to use, what was it called?” “The Elements of Harmony.” “Right, she was able to use them to disperse the excess, and also clear up the influence that was having on her mind.” “It can damage the mind?” Hermione nods seriously, “Oh, most certainly it can destroy the mind of the mage. You were lucky, having friends, especially those like yours, saved you.” Twilight glances at her watch and yelps, “I’ve gotta get to Defense Against the Dark Arts!” She draws out her wand and the mat where she was sitting is reduced back to the grass it was before, as well as all her books stacking neatly and making their way into her bag. In a matter of seconds, she’s able to put her wand away. She looks at the wand before shoving it into the pocket in her robe. “That is really easy to casually do with magic.” Hermione nods as she does the same with her own books. “I’ve got class, too, and yes, it’s very easy, not to mention good practice.” Twilight bids her friend a fare welland rushes into the castle, Spike following behind her. *** Twilight walks slowly into their dorm room. She pulls out some of the dinner to feed Spike, dumping it into his bowl as she grabs her sleepwear. She’s been told that house elves clean the clothes and clean up their rooms. Hermione has been knitting hats to put around the Gryffindor common room, as giving a house elf clothing is what frees them. Twilight doesn’t know what to think about that. She hangs up her robe and tosses her uniform into the hamper. She pulls on her pajama pants quickly and pulls out the freshly laundered pajama shirt. It’s a Rarity original, the yellow and orange top is emblazoned with a solomonic magic circle on the back with mathematical formulas in the middle of the circle. In the front is E=MC2 is magic. She smiles as she pulls on the shirt. A quick yank has her covers down, and she snuggles into the bed, pulling her duvet up. She glances over at Sunset, who’s already working on a new spellbook from the room of requirement. Twilight grabs the spellbook she was reading at supper. She gasps for a moment, a small smudge of gravy is on the cover. She flicks it off with a finger, and offers her finger to Spike as he hops up on the bed. He licks the gravy off and comes over to snuggle with her. She smiles, for it’s been a pretty good day, though Rarity’s clash with that Slytherin girl was rather disturbing. She shakes her head as she continues to read. Her attention is grabbed by a bright light from Sunset. She glances at her wrist, she’s been reading for two hours now! She glances over at Sunset, who has her wand out and is practicing spells quietly. Her four poster bed brightens again as Sunset does another spell. It seems to be a success, judging by the smile on Sunset’s face. Twilight looks at the spellbook she’s got. She’s too tired to try any new spells right now, but she does commit a few to memory. She can’t wait to try them out tomorrow! Her first period of the day is going to be open; she’ll be in the room of requirement right after breakfast. A rustling gets her to turn her head. The end table has a platter on it now, full of cupcakes. She glances over, Pinkie Pie’s covers are slowly settling to her form. And shortly, soft snores are coming from her energetic friend. She reaches out and grabs a cupcake, glancing over and seeing another pile of cupcakes next to Sunset. Twilight taps the metal platter to get Sunset’s attention. When Sunset looks up at her, she points at the cupcakes, getting a soft laugh from Sunset, as well as a glance from her at the now sleeping Pinkie Pie. Sunset Shimmer shakes her head as she grabs a cupcake herself. While they are accessing the energy around them as they use magic, they, are also using their own energy, and simple carbs and sugars are needed to replenish that energy. She won’t be eating enough to give her a stomach ache, but three cupcakes rapidly disappear. She finally puts down her book and extinguishes her light. She gets comfortable with a happy sigh. Meeting these girls has been the best thing to happen in her life.