//------------------------------// // Chapter 6. Meeting of the Minds // Story: Through the Mist // by Misty Spell //------------------------------// The air in the library was fairly tense as the three unicorns stood around the table. They had been working at this spell for the better part of an hour and were just about ready to pack it up. However, Misty had insisted on attempting the spell one final time before they left. "Look, I think I can do it, I can just feel it, you know?" she said, spreading her hooves a bit to get a firmer stance. Fire Flare looked over at her silver companion with a skeptical look before gesturing towards a clock on the wall. "She's determined I guess" she whispered, starting to fidget a bit. Silver Cog nodded, gaze having followed Fire Flares hoof point towards the clock in question. "Hmm, yes. Well while we do appreciate that you are making the attempt-" Silver began, halting when Mistys face took on a disappointed look. "Ugh, very well, I suppose one last attempt is permissible. One. We have a tight schedule that we must adhere to after all," Silver Cog said, adjusting her glasses as she always did. Nodding in agreement, Misty Spell focused her attention on the book in front of her and started to channel magical energy into her horn, which lit up with a green light, her hair flowing a bit from the concentrated energy. Slowly a green glow began to sputter into life around the book in question and it started to shake. Her two companions leaned in closer, tensing up for the briefest moments before relaxing as the book failed to lift. Panting a bit, Misty let the energy dissipate, the book falling still once more. Wiping a bit of sweat from her brow, Misty Spell looked down at the floor, clearly disappointed with the results. 'I just don't get it' she thought 'is there something wrong with me? I should have been able to do this by now.' She scuffed the floor, feeling more than a little dejected. "I guess it'll take me a while, huh?" she said, feeling a hoof on her back. Looking over, she saw that Fire Flare was standing there, a sympathetic smile on her face. "Hey, don't sweat it, you spent your whole life built for something else, I can relate," she chuckled. "Unicorns aren't built for fighting, so I had to learn harder. You can too, just give it time and lots of effort!" the red unicorn said, smile turning into a grin. The hoof that was on Mistys back then slapped into it, jerking her out of her funk. "Oof! Hey, not so rough, you're gonna leave a bruise!" she said, hearing Silver Cog standing up and turning her attention to the bespectacled unicorn. Silver Cog trotted around the table and pointed at the clock, both unicorns following the hoof to the intended location. "We've put it off as long as possible, it's time for you to address the guild. Every pony should have found their seats in the auditorium by now," Silver stated before starting to push Misty out the door. As she was pushed along, Misty Spell glanced back at her grey companion "w-wait, I don't have any experience talking in front of crowds!" she said nervously, trying and failing to dig into the ground as Fire Flare joined in the shoving. It only took a few moments for her hooves to start to hurt a little from the friction and start to walk with them however. The response she received from Fire Flare was a hearty laugh "oh don't worry about that. They aren't expectin' anything big. Just say hello, tell 'em your name and promise to do a good job! I mean, what'd the Master of your old guild use to say?" she asked, wondering if it'd count as plagiarism if it was from another universe. Silver Cog and Fire Flare looked at Misty expectantly for a moment, but all they received was a shake of the head. "I wasn't in a guild before," she replied. "In fact, I don't think there was much emphasis on guilds where I'm from" she added. As they walked backstage through the door they could hear the murmuring of a crowd. Both guild members and outsiders curious about the new pony had likely gathered en mass to check her out. Silver Cog, having heard that sighed deeply. "I shall add 'History of the Guild Reforms' to the list of things to teach," she said, lighting up her horn and encompassing Misty in a bright green glow for a moment. Once the glow passed, Silver Cog wandered over to the ropes that controlled the curtain. "Just reapplying the spell to control your...issue," she explained as she watched Misty Spell walk over to her mark. Misty Spell had no trouble finding it, as it was an X taped onto the ground in the middle portion. "So, I just say hello and stuff right?" she asked, trying her best to sound composed. Her shaking legs however gave away quite quickly how nervous she was. Brushing a stray strand of white hair from in front of her one uncovered eye, she stared forward, trying to steel her nerves, when a wooshing sensation shot past her, giving her a small start. "LADIES AND GENTLEPONIES!" Fire Flare exclaimed, sliding out onto the visible portion of the stage on her hind knees, a move most ponies in the audience thought physically impossible. Still, it was Fire Flare, no use in questioning it. "ARE. YOU. READY. TO. ROCK?!" she shouted. "YEAH!" came an excited reply from a muscular pegasus in the back. Fire Flare nodded "then put your hooves together for the ONE, the ONLY, Misty Speeeeeellllllllll!" she called out, gesturing to the curtain behind her as it shot open, revealing Misty, still shaking a little, but much less visibly than before. Fire Flare skipped happily past Misty "knock 'em dead" she whispered before trotting off to talk to Silver Cog about something. Looking out at the audience, all of whom were looking at her expectantly, Misty Spell gulped. "Uh, h-hi everypony" she squeaked before clearing her throat. "I mean...Hello everypony! My name is Misty Spell, and I'm here to....uh...to..." her mind blanked as her gaze kept sweeping over the audience, and all the eyes on her. Until they fell onto a very familiar pair. They belonged to Trixie, who was leaning back in her chair, tilting it back, and popping some popcorn into her mouth, watching with a condescending air about her. Taking a deep breath, Misty Spell tried again, "I'm here to be the new...guild master? And ummm...it'snicetomeetyougottago" she finished before rushing off, face burning red with embarrassment as she stormed out the backstage door and into the guild hall proper. "Hah! Such great stage presence! Trixie's seen babies with more confidence than that!" she declared, laughing at Misty Spells expense. When she noticed everypony staring at her with contempt her eyes darted around defensively. "What? You know Trixies RiiIIIGH-oof" she fell backwards as her chair fell out from under her. Silver Cog meanwhile rushed out after Misty, trying to catch up with her panicked friend. "Misty! Misty wait! It is not that bad!" Silver promised, a worried look on her face as she finally caught up, seeing that the guild master wasn't crying, she was hyperventilating. Feeling a little uncomfortable, she began to rub Mistys back "there there, just breath" she whispered, trying to sooth the freaking pony. After a few moments of this, Misty was finally able to calm down. "I blew it" she said dejectedly. "I just had to talk, and I blew it. I can't even blame Trixie, because I was having trouble already!" she said, hitting herself in the head. "Stupid! Stupid! Stu-" her hoof was caught before she could hit herself a third time. "Misty Spell!" Silver Cog interjected. "You are NOT stupid! You are an overwhelmed pony who was dragged into something she had no context for and are trying to fit into horseshoes you are not ready for! I will not have you beating yourself up over this," she said, admonishing Misty Spell for her actions with a disapproving glare. Misty Spell shuddered a bit before diving towards Silver Cog, embracing her tightly and she started to cry. "I-I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I just didn't want to disappoint you, or Fire Flare, or anypony else! I just thought...thought that maybe I could do something useful for once instead of...always letting everypony down!" she explained between sobs. Patting Misty Spell on the back, Silver Cog sighed. "You did not let anypony down. Nopony expected anything amazing out of you except for yourself. You are the only pony disappointed in you. Just try to take this as a learning experience, and you will do better next time," she assured her distraught friend. "Yikes" came a familiar voice behind Misty. "Bad performance?" she asked, moving around to reveal herself to be Fire Flare, holding an eye patch in her magics aura. She winced at the deadly expression coming off of Silver Cog and nodded. "Right, bad time. Aaaaanywho, I figured you'd tank a bit, so I thought this'd cheer ya right up!" she said, presenting the item to Misty Spell, who grabbed it in her hooves and held it tight. "Th-thank you -hic- I...well, it was a gift from my brother....I umm don't wanna lose it" she said, fumbling with it a bit as she fastened it over her right eye once more. Almost immediately she felt weaker, like something had left her that was keeping her going strong. She wobbled a bit, but once she was steady she felt alright, slightly more empty, but alright. Once she was sure she was steady, Misty Spell looked around "So, uh, what now?" she asked. Fire Flare tilted her head "tour of Ponyville?" she suggested. When both of her friends agreed, they all walked out the front door to do just that. ●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●● "So, let me get this straight" Misty Spell said, sipping on a soft drink as they sat outside of a restaurant waiting for their lunch. "You were raised by a bunch of crass, crude, oddball martial arts masters?" she asked, leaning on the table a bit as she waited for a response. Fire Flare nodded. "Yep! What can I say? Housefires, they orphan the best of us" she shrugged. Since it was clearly far enough in the past that it wasn't causing any emotional distress, she decided not to press the issue. Instead, she looked up at the slightly cloudy sky, watching a pony that looked suspiciously like Rainbow Dash doing her work. At least until Silver Cog cleared her throat. After adjusting her glasses, Silver Cog spoke. "After lunch we have a meeting with Mayor Mare. By now she will have written to Princess Celestia about your...unusual circumstances. We will have you fill out some paperwork in order to have you fully processed as a citizen of Equestria. Then we should bring you to the hospital to have you checked for any type of disease that we may not have a cure or effective immunity against," she explained, pulling out a little scheduling book from somewhere. She would have continued talking, however, if not for their food arriving. Licking her lips, Misty Spell dug into her salad, while Fire Flare ate her sandwich and Silver Cog ate her soup. Once they were done eating, they paid their bill and began trotting towards town hall. "So, what about diseases we got that she ain't immune to?" Fire Flare asked, hearing a facehoof from Misty Spell. "You just had to bring that up didn't you?" she whispered harshly, causing Fire Flare to whistle innocently. Both parties being ignored by Silver Cog. "Ah yes, good point! We will need to have her vaccinated and provided with the proper shots, thank you for reminding me, Fire Flare!" Silver said cheerfully, writing it down in her book. The trio of ponies finally made it to town hall, and Silver was eager to open the door for them. "After you, girls!" she said exuberantly, letting the other two wander in first. Up ahead they could see Mayor Mare pacing, her assistant holding onto a stack of papers by a desk. It appeared that the party had been cleaned up nicely, and now everypony was back to work as usual. Even the damage done to the building seemed to have been fixed in the single night that had passed, which certainly seemed to impress Misty Spell, who was looking around in amazement. "Ah, Miss Spell, Miss Cog, and Miss Flare! Excellent timing," the mayor said, urging Misty Spell forward. "We have the paperwork here all ready for you to fill out!" she added, trotting over to the pile of paperwork that the assistant had placed on the desk. All told the stack of papers looked to be about as thick as a dictionary. "Is...umm, is that all of them?" Misty asked, nervously looking at how much she needed to work on. "Nope," the mayor responded, watching as several ponies trotted in with carts full of paperwork. "Turns out there's a LOT of paperwork involved with inter-universal immigration," she said sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head with her hoof. "OH, COME ON!" Misty shouted exasperatedly as she watched the stallions dump the papers with the rest and trot off. "Well, on the plus side, you were right. It was going to be a long day!" she said, patting Misty Spell on the back as the brown unicorn sat down to recover from the shock.