//------------------------------// // Chapter 1:15 - The Anomaly // Story: Camaraderie is Sorcery // by FireOfTheNorth //------------------------------// Chapter 1:15 – The Anomaly Outside of Ponieville, Twilight Sparkle focused her attention on a lone tree. Normally, she wouldn’t have practiced new spells outside of Golden Oak’s laboratory, but in this case, it was necessary. A living tree was required, and the laboratory itself simply wouldn’t do, especially if anything went wrong. Twilight did not intend to become homeless just because a spell went awry (though that wasn’t an odd occurrence for sorceresses, especially ones that lived in flammable homes). This grassy hillock on the bank of the North Equestry River should be isolated enough that no harm would come of any accidents. Celestia’s protégé stared down the gnarled plant, building a spell around it with her thoughts. Soil around the tree began to shift as it rocked back and forth slightly, responding to the growing net of magical energy closing around it. The spell Twilight was building now bound itself to the runes she’d carved into its trunk before retreating to a safe distance, and the tree steadied itself. “Loqua[1],” Twilight whispered, and the tree responded. Nearby, Spike watched with anticipation as the soil around the tree began to move again, taking notes at Twilight’s request. Soon the roots appeared, rising from the ground and moving about like tentacles. As they stiffened, they lifted the tree out of the ground and began to propel it forward. The tree was now mobile and slid slowly across the ground, the branches swaying visibly and dropping leaves. Success!Twilight prepared to release her enchantment before it drained any more of her energy. “Look out!” Spike tried to warn the sorceress, but it was too late. Pinkamena crashed into her, knocking them both to the ground. The spell destabilized, and the tree sank back into the ground before an explosion tore up the trunk, splitting it into four sections. As the smoke cleared, it looked like it had been uprooted and struck by a powerful lightning bolt. Small flames still burned on what branches were intact. “Pinkamena!What do you think you are doing?” Twilight demanded as she pushed the bard off of her and rose to her hooves. “Sorry, Twilight, didn’t see you there,” Pinkamena said as she too stood, keeping her neck craned and eyes fixed upwards. “Why are you walking around without watching where it is you are going?” Twilight asked, knowing that the answer was probably Pinkamena just being Pinkamena. “Something’s going to fall, and I want to be ready,” she replied, not taking her eyes off the sky for a moment. Yes. Pinkamena being Pinkamena. “How do you know something’s going to fall?” Spike asked, not dismissing it as yet another quirk in Pinkamena’s personality. “I sensed it was going to happen, and my senses have never been wrong before,” Pinkamena replied. That caught Twilight’s attention. The ability to predict future events was limited to only the most powerful sorceresses (and prophets, if you believed the Church of One), so there was no way that Pinkamena was able to perceive the future. The number of sorceresses who’d been able to get even a vague impression of future events could be written on a single page, and Pinkamena would not fit in with any of them. Her magical potential was below the sorceress’s notice, like most ponies, so there was no possible way she could predict future events, even with the vague prediction that “something would fall.” “Pinkamena, I can assure you that looking at the sky is pointless,” Twilight said authoritatively, “Nothing is going to fall.” As if to prove her wrong, no sooner had Twilight finished speaking than a frog landed on her head. Raining frogs and fish were a documented phenomenon, but there were hardly any clouds in the sky, and the event was far too coincidental. “Phew,” Pinkamena said, rubbing her neck as she let her head return to a normal angle, “I was afraid it might be you that fell, Fluttershy.” The frog leapt onto her back and Twilight looked upwards, seeing the druidess hovering above her. She had many frogs on her back and head and gathered up in her robes. Fluttershy was carrying so many of the amphibians that she was having a hard time keeping ahold of them, explaining how the one now hopping to Spike had landed on Twilight’s head. “Fluttershy, what are you doing?” the sorceress asked, and the pegasus hovered down to reply. “I’m sorry, Twilight Sparkle,” the druidess apologized, grabbing the frog on Spike’s head before he attempted to snatch it up with his claws, “Ponieville’s ponds and rivers are becoming too overpopulated, so I’m taking some of the frogs down to Froggy Bottom Bog. The druid circle there sent word of underpopulation.” “Of course they did,” Twilight sighed, wondering how druids, who prized nature above all else, justified so blatantly interfering with it. But, that was a debate she didn’t feel like getting into right now; she had other things on her mind. “Oh no,” Pinkamena said with a shudder as Fluttershy flew away, “Something else is going to fall around here.” “Is the prediction of falling objects the extent of your prophetic skills?” Twilight asked snarkily. It was a coincidence, nothing more. She can’t be clairvoyant. “No, I once predicted an assassination plot,” Pinkamena said with all seriousness as she stared at the sky like a madpony. “Of course you did,” the sorceress replied, trotting away toward the ruined tree, “Pinkamena, there is no possible way that you could have the ability to predict the future without me being able to detect your magical energy whilst doing it. I sense nothing, and therefore your senses are inval-ah!” Twilight Sparkle’s discourse was interrupted as the riverbank gave way beneath her hooves, dumping her in the stream. She paddled toward the bank and took Spike’s outstretched claw. “I don’t know, Twilight,” her page said as he helped the sopping wet sorceress out of the water, “Maybe Pinkamena’s onto something here.” “Impossible!” Twilight said defiantly, “The only logical explanation for these two events is coincidence.” “What happened t’ y’, Twi’?” Applejack asked as she approached, part of the crowd of ponies that was assembling around the tree Twilight’s spell had destroyed, “I wouldn’t swim downstream o’ th’ town if I was you.” “Pinkamena predicted something would fall,” Spike offered as explanation before Twilight could explain the situation. “She did?” Applejack said with panic, looking at the sky. “It’s fine now; Twilight was the one to fall,” Pinkamena assured her, and Applejack breathed a sigh of relief. “You believe in this?” Twilight asked incredulously, “How long has this been going on? Why have I not seen it before?” “It comes and goes,” Pinkamena said with a shrug, “I almost never get two premonitions in a single day.” “Ever since Pinkamena first came t’ Ponieville, everypony around here has learned t’ heed her premonitions. They’ve never been wrong yet,” Applejack added, “We all just assumed she had a li’l magic in her.” “Then why am I unable to sense any magical energy anywhere near her?” Twilight demanded, becoming more frustrated by the minute, “That is it. I need to disprove these powers now … or prove them. I do not really care, so long as I get a definite answer. Come with me, Pinkamena.” *** The two ponies headed to Golden Oak’s laboratory, and (after a change of clothes) Twilight Sparkle was ready to settle the matter once and for all. Pinkamena was seated in the center of a magic circle Twilight had drawn in chalk around her in the cavern beneath the laboratory. On the edges of the circle at even intervals stood stands atop which were crystals connected with thread. The sorceress carefully watched the movements of crystals suspended from the threads and jotted down her observations as she infused the crystals atop the stands with different levels of magical energy. The results were exactly what Twilight Sparkle had expected; Pinkamena had no magical potential to speak of.In fact, she had even less than usual: only 0.07 Bu, less than a tenth of the average adult non-Source unicorn, and less than a quarter of the average earth pony. More magical energy would be expended to convert her flesh into energy than would be gained back. Twilight was currently nearing 2000 Bu of magical potential, and looking into the future was far beyond her reach, so there was absolutely no way that Pinkamena would even have a chance of doing so. The numbers didn’t lie—the numbers couldn’t lie.Still, Twilight wasn’t completely satisfied. “Twilight, how much longer do I have to sit here?” Pinkamena asked morosely, extremely bored with the activity that thrilled her sorceress friend. “Until you get another one of your premonitions,” Twilight replied, “I need information during the event itself if I am going to absolutely confirm my argument.” “That could take days … weeks … months,” Pinkamena protested, “Until today, the last premonition I had was the day before the summer solstice when I got the feeling I would soon meet a very important pony that would change my life.” “Could you at least try to look into the future?” Twilight groaned. “It doesn’t work like that. I can’t control when the premonitions happen, they just do, and usually very soon before the actual event,” Pinkamena replied, watching the bobbing crystals and trying to get some enjoyment out of the process, “Maybe your test is broken.” “Impossible,” Twilight said with certainty, “This test was created from the work of the sorcerer Butterfrain, who created our modern concept of quantifying magical potential. It has been used for generations to measure the power of sorceresses, and has worked without fail.” “Well, maybe it isn’t working because I’m not a sorceress,” Pinkamena said, fishing for excuses to leave. “That is beside the point. This test is applicable to everypony, whether they are a Source or not. It was designed with nonmagical ponies as the baseline,” Twilight lectured, “Your magical potential is nearly nonexistent, yet still you have a reputation for being able to predict the future. How? Without magic, it is impossible! There is no logical way you could do such a thing! Yet, what is more likely? Every time you have predicted something, it has occurred by coincidence, or there is something here that I cannot see? I do not understand!” “You don’t have to understand it, Twilight. Even I don’t fully understand why I’m able to sense the future,” Pinkamena said, “That doesn’t change the fact that I can. Why don’t you believe me?” “Because it makes no sense!” the sorceress snapped, “How can I believe something that an infallible test proves is nonexistent, yet my physical senses say might just exist after all? What is the point of natural law if it can be circumvented for no logical reason?” “I don’t know anything about that, Twilight,” Pinkamena said humbly, “I just know that the things I see or feel really happen, unless I prevent them.” “If you can prevent future events from occurring, then why did you not stop me from falling in the river?” Twilight asked deadpan. “I can’t always stop them from happening, especially if the premonition is too vague to know exactly what’s going to occur. Earlier, I sensed falling, but I didn’t know what or who would fall.” “None of this makes any sense! There is no rhyme, reason, or explanation to these premonitions, yet ponies seem to think you are some kind of seer! I give up!” the sorceress said with frustration, and began to tear down the web of thread and crystal suspended around Pinkamena, “I am not making any progress here, and nothing further will be accomplished by measuring magical flux and prodding you with questions about senses and premonitions. I have other matters I should be attending to instead of attempting to puzzle out how you can tell the future, if you even can. I should just put the idea out of my head and get back to work on my studies.” “Okay then, I was getting pretty hungry anyway,” Pinkamena said as she bounded out of the magic circle without a care in the world, far too cheerful for Twilight’s liking. The sorceress gathered up her magical supplies and threw them haphazardly out of the way; Spike would see to them later. She tried to put the matter out of her mind like she said she would, but it proved impossible. The sorcery she’d studied since her youth was wondrous and filled her with awe, but it was always explainable, and it followed certain laws. She’d built up her studies on understanding these laws and finding novel ways to use and manipulate them to create new incantations, but there was always a sensible path from the known to the previously unknown. She could see no such path here; Pinkamena’s premonitions defied all explanation. Visions of the future could only be conjured up through intense focus, not involuntarily, and certainly not without the expenditure of great reserves of magical energy. Pinkamena has no magical potential, so she couldn’t create visions. Unless, she really does have magical potential and the premonitions temporarily deplete the energy she is storing in a way that skews the results and makes her seem devoid of potential? No, given how much time has passed, her potential would have risen to more than 0.07 Bu by now even if she were drained to empty. “Twilight, watch out,” Pinkamena said after a shudder, placing a hoof in front of the sorceress.Twilight Sparkle had not been paying attention, consumed in her own thoughts, and walked right into her friend’s foreleg before falling back onto her hindquarters. “Pinkamena, what was that?” she demanded as she stood. A moment later, the door to the ground floor of the laboratory, which the two ponies had been trotting toward, swung open to admit Spike. I would have been hit by the door if she hadn’t stopped me. Slowly, Twilight’s head swung to face the oblivious bard with an intense stare. A premonition? It couldn’t be! Now I have no choice. I must discover how she is able to do this! I fear I shan’t be able to rest until I do. *** Pinkamena was a mystery, and a larger one than Twilight Sparkle had hoped to get herself into. Everything she did brought up so many questions, and the sorceress had to stay focused on her goal. That didn’t stop her from jotting down the issues she wanted to look into later. Unable to concentrate on any of her studies until she got to the bottom of these inexplicable premonitions, the sorceress was clandestinely following Pinkamena as she went about her daily actions, observing everything and hoping to catch some vital piece of information that would reveal all. The pink, poofy-maned pony had experienced no more premonitions since departing Golden Oak’s library (at least none that Twilight had recognized as such), but she had done plenty of other odd things. Her official profession was a baker, under the supervision of Master and Mistress Cake at Sugar Cube Corner, but the only time she spent at the bakery was to grab half a loaf of bread to munch on and slide a few unbaked loaves into the oven before departing. She spent some time in Ponieville’s town square strumming her lute and trying out different songs, gaining a coin or two from ponies who knew her, but for an aspiring bard, it was surprisingly little time to spend practicing her craft. The rest of the day she seemed to wander. Pinkamena spoke to ponies all throughout Ponieville: in the market, at the Mayoral Keep, outside their homes. In some places, Twilight found it quite hard to remain out of sight or discreet. Invisibility was still out of her reach, but she knew a few spells that could convince ponies with weaker wills (most of Ponieville’s population) that they hadn’t seen her. It wouldn’t work on Pinkamena, but it would keep the others from drawing her attention to her stalker. Eventually, Pinkamena left Ponieville entirely, trotting through the surrounding countryside. Some of her time was spent visiting with ponies, other times it seemed like she was just gallivanting about in fields and pastures without a care in the world. All this was peculiar, but none of it was anything that Twilight Sparkle could use to determine from where this mare drew her baffling powers. When puzzling out problems related to sorcery, she had always been able to sense some progress was being made, however slowly, and she’d always known a sensible solution awaited at the end. Here, however, it felt like no progress was being made at all, and no solution seemed to have even the slightest possibility of existing. The frustration was driving her mad. “Twilight, what are you doing?” Spike asked as he approached the sorceress where she was hiding behind a tree stump, fearing the answer as he saw Pinkamena hanging by her hindhooves in a nearby tree. “Ah, Spike, good,” Twilight said as she spat out the quill from her mouth, “Do you have fresh ink and parchment on you?” “Always,” her page sighed as he pulled them from the satchel at his side, long ago having learned to keep some handy at all times in case Twilight needed him to write something down, “Why are you spying on Pinkamena?” “It is necessary,” Twilight replied, passing the notes she’d already scribbled down to Spike as she kept her eyes on her quarry, “I need to observe her without interfering. It is the only way I can gather the information I need to deduce how her predictive powers work.” “How? What do you expect to see that would help in any way?” Spike asked incredulously, seeing no way the sorceress could have reached such a conclusion. “It could be anything: interaction with an existing well of magical energy, ingesting a sorcery-infused plant, a lost prophetic relic,” Twilight said conspiratorially, “I do not know what piece of information will connect everything together, so I have to remain vigilant and record everything.” “Twilight, that makes no sense,” Spike said bluntly, “You already did all the tests you could, and following Pinkamena around in the hope of discovering some miraculous solution is a waste of time. Nothing you could observe would help any more than what you measured with established sorcerous methods. Maybe, you should just accept that Pinkamena can predict the future, and there’s no real explanation for it.” “Look, she just shivered!” Twilight said excitedly, Spike’s words falling on deaf ears, “It is a premonition! Now, we will see if it comes true.” Dropping down from the tree, Pinkamena looked up with concern. So, she thinks something is going to fall. Twilight kept herself from looking up at the sky herself, but Spike had no such restraint. In a way, the sorceress was glad her page was doing so. If something was going to fall on her head again, he would spot it. Pinkamena backed up for a bit, still looking up at the sky, before looking back down and trotting briskly over to a nearby shed, shutting herself inside. Ha! So, her prediction didn’t come true, but what is she doing? Twilight got her answer as a swarm of angry hornets appeared out of a nearby thicket, bearing down on her hiding place. “Ily’I consa nof leya![2]” Twilight incanted swiftly, causing a globe of water to rise from the nearby river and envelop the swarm, drowning every insect inside. Twilight ducked back down behind the stump as Pinkamena emerged from the shed a few minutes later, hay in her mane. As she bounded away, the sorceress wondered just what she had predicted. Did she know the hornets were coming, or had she predicted danger? Or, had she predicted something falling, only to hear or see the hornets and run for cover? She couldn’t very well ask her without breaking her cover. So, perhaps her plan to observe Pinkamena wasn’t perfect, but it was all she had. Twilight was obsessed now, and refused to give up until she got to the bottom of this. “Come on, Spike,” she commanded her page, who replied with a sigh as they took off after the pink ball of energy ahead of them. *** Together, Twilight Sparkle, personal protégé of Celestia, and her ever-patient assistant Spike, son of the great dragonlord Ingrirtireth, spent the rest of the afternoon creeping from stone to bush to tree following Pinkamena as she wandered across the countryside around Ponieville with no distinguishable purpose. Just like before, there was no rhyme or reason to her actions. She talked to a peasant farmer as he walked through the field harvesting crops, giving a ride to his children on her back in the meantime. She tied together some of the ropes dangling from the hanging tree where Twilight had first met Fluttershy, and swung back and forth without a care. She chased a flock of sheep across the hills, imitating them until the shepherd asked her to leave. Everything she did was baffling, and she was always moving from one place to the next, until she ended up on the Apple lands. Twilight peered down on Pinkamena from atop the newly built home of the Apples, watching as she told Apple Bloom her story of the White Tail expedition. Spike was next to her, still jotting down her observations, though this probably wasn’t the wisest position for him to be in. His skills at controlling his fire were still developing (and would be for years), and a sneeze could easily set the fresh thatch ablaze, but Twilight wasn’t concerned about that right now. She and her page had collected copious amounts of data on Pinkamena’s activities, but none of it had led her any closer to discerning the source of her premonitions. She needed more. “Hello there, Pinkamena,” Applejack called out as she trotted up with a cart of potatoes, and Apple Bloom left to jump in the empty wagon Big McIntosh was leaving with, “What are y’ doin’ out here?” “Oh, just wandering around while Twilight follows me without my knowledge,” Pinkamena responded matter-of-factly. “What!” Twilight Sparkle cried, and instantly teleported herself and a stunned Spike down from the roof and next to her two friends, “If you were aware I was following you, why did you not say anything?” “Well, you obviously didn’t want to be seen, what with all the hiding and sneaking around, so I thought it’d be politer to just act like I didn’t know you were there,” Pinkamena said with a smile. “But, the premise of my observations was that you were unaware of them, and therefore I was not interfering with the system, but you did know, and therefore my results may be tainted from outside interference,” Twilight broke down. “I wouldn’t worry about it,” Spike said, flipping through the stack of notes, “It’s not like you learned anything anyway, other than that Pinkamena leads a very … interesting life.” “Is this still about my premonitions?” Pinkamena asked, looking askance at the sorceress, “Twilight, I figured out long ago that I could either spend time worrying about why I was having them, or I could use them to help ponies, and I chose the latter. You don’t have to understand why I have these premonitions to know that they exist.” “No, you do not have to understand, but I do,” Twilight replied, “I cannot leave something like this unsolved. There is no logical explanation for these premonitions, and until I receive one that proves or disproves them, I cannot stop searching.” Pinkamena frowned, but her expression quickly relaxed, and her eyes opened wide. She swayed on her hooves, and would have fallen over had Applejack not caught her. The mare squeezed her eyes shut before shuddering and opening them again. A premonition? It’s not quite like the rest. “Believe it or not, Twilight, but I just had another vision, clearer than I have in a while,” Pinkamena said, “I saw Froggy Bottom Bog. Something dangerous is going to happen there, along with something big and unexpected.” “Fluttershy was headed to Froggy Bottom Bog,” Spike reminded everypony, “Is she in danger?” “Maybe?” Pinkamena said, squeezing her eyes shut and trying to recapture the vision, but few additional details were revealed to her, “I see her, running, and a big shadow.” “If Fluttershy is in danger, we have t’ do somethin’,” Applejack said, and looked at Twilight. “Fine, we will go to Froggy Bottom Bog,” Twilight said with some reluctance, having little desire to trek to a swamp, but compelled to so for Fluttershy’s sake, and to sate her own curiosity, “Pinkamena’s prediction, while still vague, is much more specific than her past ‘senses.’ If what she predicted comes to pass, then I suppose the power is truly reality. But, if it does not happen exactly as she said, then everything up to this point must have been mere coincidence.” “Sounds fair to me,” Pinkamena said with a shrug, “Though that’s a lot of coincidences.” *** Froggy Bottom Bog was a fairly new name for the region, a name given to the swampland as much by druids attempting to have the land set aside as a wildlife preserve as by the local noble family, who wanted the wretched ground to seem more appealing. When the pegasi had ruled Equestria, they’d named it Gwye’lnych Thraes, and when the unicorns invaded they’d kept the name, translating it to Hathie Eril’r Somp, Sinking Mud Mire. After the Conjunction, however, the swampy area began to be known by a more sinister name: Dead End Marsh. The region earned this name both from its placement and by how dangerous it was to enter. South of Ponieville, the North and South Equestry Rivers merged into a single Equestry River that flowed to the Gulf of Sirens. The merger between the rivers, however, was anything but simple. Instead of merely joining together, both rivers flowed into Froggy Bottom Bog, whose waters eventually found their outlet to the west. This impassable bog made it impossible for a boat with cargo to travel down the North or South Equestry River and make it to a port that would buy their goods. Not that anypony would want to purchase what Onon’r Laht in the north had to sell, and there was little in the south worth shipping up the river, but perhaps the reason the Equestry Valley was so underdeveloped in the first place was this vast barrier to trade via river. Froggy Bottom Bog had also attracted many monsters after the Conjunction; not as many as the Everfree Forest, but enough that a Hunter in the region would always have something to kill. The issue with this was that there were plenty of things to kill in the bog, but few ponies who lived there long enough to pay for the Hunter’s service. It was a dead end to life, as well, consuming ponies in an endless cycle. The local lord would make a compelling offer to anypony who would live on the land, and peasants would rush in as an escape from the fields and the lord’s crushing taxes. Then, monsters would begin killing them off and they’d send out word for Hunters. The Hunters would come, slay some monsters, but soon the peasants would be too few or too poor to pay for any further jobs, and the Hunters would leave. The rest of the peasants would die off, and nopony would set hoof near the marshes. Then, after enough time had passed that nopony feared them anymore, the local lord would make another offer. And so, the bog continued to swallow up hundreds of souls, and those were only the ones that were recorded. Plenty of peasants living on the surrounding land disappeared, either from bold monsters venturing out of the swamps or from wandering off into the marshes themselves never to be seen again. It was here that Fluttershy had been headed in her mission to repopulate the area with frogs, just as the local nobles so often tried to repopulate the area with peasants; the result would be the same. Yet, Twilight Sparkle had not been worried for her friend’s safety. Despite all the deaths of ponies who’d ventured into Froggy Bottom Bog for one reason or another, the local druid circle stood untouched. They knew where it was safe for ponies to go, and where it was not. Fluttershy wouldn’t risk going deeper into the bog just to deliver frogs, would she? “She’s … this way!” Pinkamena announced after closing her eyes for a few seconds to get a clearer picture. She had picked up a few more pieces of information on the way here, but the premonitions were becoming weaker, and she was only able to grab snippets and try to piece them into the bigger picture. The sky was darkening as the three ponies began to trudge through the marshland, the sun nearing the western horizon. Twilight was thankful that she’d changed into her traveling robes to follow Pinkamena around, so they wouldn’t become too ruined. Still, the sucking mud and swampy water wouldn’t be kind to them, no matter how much Spike tried to save them from his perch upon her back. The sorceress resigned herself to the fact not long after they’d entered Froggy Bottom Bog; it was a small price to pay to put an end to the matter of Pinkamena’s premonitions once and for all. Pinkamena continued to lead the way as they traversed the bog, and they eventually spotted the buttery yellow pegasus in the distance as they crossed a rickety wooden bridge over a span of water too wide and deep to wade. As Twilight had expected, they hadn’t had to travel too deep into the swamp before finding her; there were even a few cottages around here, and Fluttershy was speaking to some of their occupants. The druidess bid them farewell as she saw her friends approaching. “Fluttershy, you’re all right!” Applejack said joyfully. “Of course, why wouldn’t I be?” the druidess said with confusion, “Did all four of you come out here for me? Is it an emergency, Twilight? Does Celestia need us for a quest?” “No, no, nothing so important as that,” Twilight Sparkle said, stepping forward and looking around at the quaint collection of buildings in the midst of the bog, “Pinkamena was certain you were in danger. She claims to have seen it in visions and premonitions, but I think we can all see now that her predictive powers are not as infallible as she claims.” “You have to admit it, Pinkamena, there doesn’t seem to be anything dangerous here at all,” Spike said neutrally as he jumped down from Twilight’s back. “Precisely,” the sorceress lectured, “Fluttershy has completed her task of relocating the frogs without incident, and from here back to Ponieville we know there is little danger, nor much chance of something ‘big and unexpected’ occurring. I am quite relieved, and not only for Fluttershy’s sake. Not to boast, but I was never in error; foreknowledge requires the ability to do sorcery, an ability that Pinkamena lacks. Therefore, these premonitions of hers have only come true through coincidence. I am sorry, Pinkamena, but you can not predict the future.” “Is that island moving?” Spike asked, completely ruining Twilight Sparkle’s dramatic conclusion. Twilight looked with annoyance behind her, and an island was indeed sliding through the marsh.It wasn’t a large island, only a few small shrubs atop it, and it began to pick up pace as it neared the small collection of buildings. The muddy water began to ripple and swell as the island lifted out of the water, the thick soil soon giving way to glistening brown scales.Closer to the settlement, four armored heads filled with rows of razor-sharp teeth emerged from the water, long slender necks connecting them to the main body of the beast, which continued to rise from the swamp, the ferns and mud slipping off its back as it reared up. Two of the hydra’s heads gave out a bellowing wail as it neared the shore, drawing the occupants of the cottages from their homes. As the hydra’s clawed feet scrambled onto the semi-solid ground, its necks reached out to snatch up the ponies before they could retreat back inside. Those that did manage to make it into their homes didn’t last much longer; the cottages were crushed easily by the hydra’s step or a butt of one of its heads. Applejack, Fluttershy, and Pinkamena began to retreat, making their way toward the bridge, but Twilight stood firm. She was reeling from the hydra’s sudden appearance as much as anypony, but she didn’t want Pinkamena’s visions to be any more fulfilled than they already had been by the big, unexpected, and dangerous events playing out before her. Also, she was probably the only pony here who had even the slimmest chance of fighting it and winning. “Cant’r majia tanya Ye’r fecorar![3]” she incanted, and storm clouds gathered overhead. Lightning lanced down from the sky, striking a head of the hydra that was chewing a mouthful of peasant, thatch, and twigs. Twilight was no Hunter, for if she had been, then she would’ve known how thick and impervious to attack a hydra’s scales were. Her attack had no effect, other than to evaporate the swamp water still clinging to the hydra and draw its attention her way. Rather than wait around and be eaten, she turned tail and followed her friends. Any spells she knew that would have a chance against the creature would require the precise etching of runes into the ground, something that would be virtually impossible in the porous soil of the bog. Pinkamena and Applejack were already across the bridge, and Fluttershy picked Spike up before gliding over herself. As Twilight galloped toward them, the hydra plodded forward, and extracted a large boulder from where it had sunken in the mud with two of its heads. A shadow passed over the sorceress as the boulder sailed overhead and crashed into the bridge. Twilight pulled up short as the planks tore free ahead of her hooves, leaving her standing on the remaining span on her bank. “Wait, Twilight!” Pinkamena yelled as she prepared to teleport to where her friends were waiting, “Stay where you are!” “Are you mad?” Twilight yelled back, looking over her shoulder as the hydra grew nearer. “Trust me! You need to stay where you are!” Pinkamena replied with a shiver. Pinkamena had been right.Even though they were still on the fringes of Froggy Bottom Bog, there was danger here. She didn’t have the ability to see Pinkamena’s visions for herself, but given what she had heard described, it was identical to how events were panning out. No, she cannot be able to see the future! But, what if she can? Does she know something I don’t? Twilight decided that she would trust Pinkamena, and find out if she really had the ability to see the future. If she needed to, she could always teleport away at the last moment. The hydra was almost on top of her now, and its heads stretched toward her. As it reached the bridge, the beast’s feet crashed through the wood and into the sloping mud of the riverbank.The section of bridge Twilight was standing upon tore free and fell into the water, but remained afloat. Twilight ducked as teeth snapped at her, but she was soon out of the hydra’s reach as the section of bridge floated toward the opposite bank. Not satisfied to let the purple pony escape so easily, the hydra surged forward into the water. The little structure of the bridge that was left collapsed, taking with it the sloping mud into the water, stirring things up.The hydra tried to paddle forward, but was quickly sucked under, the mud burying its legs and entrapping it. It could survive underwater, but wouldn’t be leaving its watery prison any time soon. As the hydra sank beneath the bog water, Twilight looked back in amazement. “Twi’, are you all right?” Applejack asked as she helped the sorceress onto the bank after her makeshift raft washed ashore. “Somehow, I am,” Twilight said as she looked back at the bubbling waters, “If I had not waited, the hydra may not have come for the bridge and become entrapped. Pinkamena, I still cannot see any way for you to have foretold it, but once again it was as you said: big, dangerous, and unexpected.” “That wasn’t all,” Pinkamena said after closing her eyes for a moment, “I’m still getting a sense that the unexpected is yet to come.” “Yet to come?” Fluttershy asked worriedly, “What’s more unexpected than a hydra attacking a settlement of ponies here?” “Something else?” Twilight said incredulously, “Something else!” What else could there be? Twilight Sparkle was on her last nerve. Random coincidences (or so she thought) had driven her throughout the day to obsession. She had to prove that either Pinkamena’s premonitions weren’t genuine, or that they were caused by sorcery; there was no middle ground! Yet, time and again, Pinkamena denied easy explanation. She had no magic, yet her foretellings continually came true. If she said something unexpected was still coming, then something unexpected probably would occur, yet there was not a hint of magic coming from her as she shuddered and prophesied. This mare contradicted all magical laws that Twilight Sparkle had learned since her foalhood. She was an impossibility, an anomaly, a foil to logic. Yet, the proof was there that her premonitions were fulfilled every time. “Pinkamena, what else can you tell us?” Twilight asked softly. “What do you mean?” the bard said as she cocked her head. “What else can you tell us about this unexpected thing that is coming?” Twilight said calmly, “I cannot understand how, but your premonitions really do come true. It goes against everything I have learned, and everything I believe about sorcery, but the evidence is mounting against me. Somehow, some way, you are able to predict the future without the use of any magic. I may not be able to understand why, but it is clear that it is happening, and I would be a fool to deny it any longer. I suppose … I may never understand, but I can still trust that your premonitions are real.” “You’re going to stop trying to disprove them?” Spike asked hopefully. “Yes,” Twilight with finality, “I have to accept that they are real, even if I cannot understand how. That much is clear to me now.” “That was it,” Pinkamena said after blinking her eyes a few times to make sure the premonitions had really ended, “I thought you would never accept my senses as real, but you did.” “That was it?” Twilight said was disbelief, “The ‘big and unexpected’ event that was going to occur here was me choosing to believe in your premonitions, even if they were impossible to explain? Is it really so unexpected that I would accept something that could not be explained by my existing beliefs?” Wait, maybe it is. “That’s just the sensation I got,” Pinkamena said with a shrug, “You have to admit, after all the time you spent today following me around searching for proof, it seemed pretty unlikely that you would come around without an explanation.” “I … suppose you are right … again,” Twilight Sparkle admitted, “If nothing else frightening is awaiting us, I suppose we should return to Ponieville.” It had been an odd day, and the sorceress was looking forward to getting some rest. “Nothing I can foresee,” Pinkamena replied with a chuckle as the ponies and dragon began their way back home. *** Unbeknownst to Twilight Sparkle, she had actually been right the whole time. Pinkamena’s premonitions were not some supernatural gift that defied all reason; they required magic to work, though a magic unlike anything Twilight knew. The test the sorceress had administered beneath Golden Oak’s laboratory had been carefully created, and narrowly measured magical potential as understood by Cant’r Laht mages. Had she broadened the test to search for any type of energy, she would have discovered a strange power dwelling within Pinkamena, the source of her abilities. Had Twilight administered the same test to herself, she would have discovered the strange power within her own body as well. This was a sorcery different from that studied across Equestria, and indeed, across the whole world. It was the sorcery that allowed Twilight Sparkle to rapidly master new spells without extensive practice, and push herself beyond her magical potential’s limits in extreme circumstances. It was the sorcery that allowed Pinkamena to peer into the future, and receive glimpses and sensations of what was to come. It was the same sorcery that made the White Tail army’s barding as tough as real armor, the gala dresses shine with a beauty and radiance their mere construction alone could not explain, and the quality of everything Rarity poured her passions into exquisite. It was the sorcery that Grandmaster Nattalïer of the White Procession had noticed in Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, and Applejack. Each of the Brave Companions had abilities that went beyond the natural, and each owed it to this strange sorcery within them. For the moment, they remained unaware of this magic, but it wouldn’t be too long before Twilight Sparkle got the explanation she’d spent this day searching desperately for, and discovered that it may not have been mere coincidence that these six ponies had been the ones to gather and stop the return of Nightmare Moon.