//------------------------------//
// After school adventure 
// Story: Tale of a Comet: White Light 
// by Ashfur 
//------------------------------//

*Brrrrring!*

"Well, that's the bell.  Class dismissed!"  As the teacher slumped back in her chair, twenty-four foals belonging to the upper nobility of the crystal empire rushed out of the room joyously.  Most of them rushed over to the playground to wait for their parents (or butlers in some cases) to come pick them up.  Of course, one chose to remain seated until the stampede was over.  Packing up his books into his bag, Astral Comet bid farewell to his teacher before heading outside, where Flurry Heart waited patiently.

"Hiya, Comet!  You okay?"

The gray colt sighed in response.  "Just tired.  Miss Twilight was right, not having much magic makes it really easy to run out of steam..."  Still, he perked up slightly.  "Hey, isn't that expedition to go find where that light from my pendant pointed today?  Maybe sparky will let us come along!"

"I doubt that Mom and Auntie Twilight would let anypony our age go, especially not the princess of the empire and a magicless pegasus."

Comet hung his head down again.  "Good point.  If I barely have enough energy for a 45 minute recess, I'm not sure how I could convince her to let me go all the way to the mountains.  I know it's only an hour's walk beyond the border of the crystal heart's influence, but with how cold it gets there are risks.  Maybe we can at least see them off?  Oh, wait, didn't they already leave?  I'm not sure."  Deciding that now was as good a time as any to stop dragging his bag along the ground and actually wear it, Comet reared up on his hind legs and flared his wings out for stability before slinging the bag over his shoulder like a backpack.  "Well, only one way to find out!"

Flurry responded by facehoofing.  "Must you?"

"You try walking on two legs for all your life and having to switch.  At least I have SOME use for my wings."  This was true, and most ponies had to concede to that point: unused wings deteriorated like any other muscle, and ever since Comet nearly broke his front leg he put most of his weight on the back legs anyway.  It wasn't exactly normal, but then again neither was the monochrome colt.  Plus, it was Twilight's idea.

Flurry Heart flapped her wings to hover in the air at Comet's eye level.  "That extra height makes me wanna learn how to do that.  Might get me on some theme park rides."

A shrug was her response.  "I could try to teach you, but Miss Twilight said there's only one other pony she knows who can walk like this without falling over, and that's because she's obsessed with humans or something, I wasn't paying too much attention.  Hey, why don't we head over and play with the others for a bit?"

Flurry was about to respond, but a voice interrupted.  "I'm afraid there's no time.  My apologies, your majesty... and sir."  The two turned to look at the new pony, a very strong looking earth pony.  He had dark burgundy fur and a silver mane that flowed straight down, unlike most ponies.  He also wore the traditional armor of the crystal guard, reassuring the pair that he was no threat, despite the intimidating vertical scar over his left eye.  "Extrema Units, at your service.  I come on orders from the princess.  You two are to be taken to see the group off as they leave, her majesties Cadence and Twilight wished to bid you two farewell.  I have a carriage ready to go.  Shall we?"  He gestured to a nearby carriage.  It looked like it was prepared in a rush, but it still looked presentable.

Flurry recognized the royal carriage and hopped in.  "Well? come on, Comet!  We can't keep them waiting!"

"Right behind you, Feathers!  Let's go!"





It didn't take long for the pair to realize that the carriage was not heading for the crystal palace.  Comet was the first to speak up.  "Uh, hey, Mister Extrema, sir?  The palace is that way."  He pointed with a hoof to the structure in the center of the city.  "I know it's easy to get lost here, but even I can find the palace."

"Okay, we can discuss your sense of direction later.  But Comet's right, what gives?  This is NOT the route to the palace,"  Flurry angrily interrupted.

"Oh, relax, you two," Extrema replied in a gruff yet reassuring voice.  They had to leave, so they asked me to bring the two of you to their base camp at the edge of the snow.  Last I checked, the boundary is this way."

"You're taking us to the boundary?"  Inquired Comet.  "I know earth ponies are strong, but to take us all that way alone?  What does your job have to with mathematics, anyway?"

That got a reaction out of his 'ACBFF' (Astral Comet's Best Friend Forever, as Flurry was quite imitative of her father and aunt.  He was FHBFF, of Flurry Heart's BFF).   She looked right at Comet with one question.  "What the hay does his job have to do with math?  Have you finally lost it?"

Comet smiled.  Flurry recognized his trademark 'I'm smart and I'm reminding you of that' face.  It was similar to Twilight's actually.  "An extremum is the highest or lowest point in a numerical function.  Multiple extremum are called extrema.  So with a name like Extrema Units, I'd expect him to be teaching math, not pulling us..."

"You're a sharp one, aren't ya?"  The guard replied.

"I was in advanced math on my old world."  It was common knowledge by now that Comet wasn't from anywhere on Equus, so he could say that without worry.

"Well, only other pony to know what that means in math and call me out on it was some old professor at a college I guarded once.  But what I'm good at is really leading my units through extrema.  That is to say, I can guide ponies through harsh environments like deserts and tundras safely.  Sharp thinking, but you need to remember words can have many meanings. 
Things aren't always as they seem, you know, boy."

"True."

Flurry sighed.  "This is why you never need to study to ace our math tests, isn't it?"

"Also true."





The rest of the ride progressed with little incident.  By the time bellies were feeling empty, the base camp was in sight.  Easily visible due to their distance from the group were Twilight, Cadence, Shining Armor, Sunburst, and Starlight Glimmer.  Flurry spread her wings and soared over to the merry group, while Extrema helped Comet out of the carriage.  The gray pegasus walked over to the group himself, before dropping to all fours and galloping forward to give Cadence a tackle-hug.

"You guys almost left without us!  Meanies,"  he chided.

Cadence looked away in a gesture of shame.  "We didn't have much of a choice.  We caught word from our scouts of some kind of energy coming from the crash site of that fallen star.  None of our sensor crystals resonated with it, so we don't know what kind of magic it is.  If it's dangerous, we have to contain it."

Comet looked at Starlight.  "Resonate?  Explain, please, but no lectures."

"Oh please, I'm not Twilight.  I'll give you the brief explanation,"  she began.  "As you know, there are three types of pony magic.  Earth pony, Unicorn, and Pegasus.  But those all fall under one frequency of magic, Pony magic."  Comet nodded, and Flurry looked on in interest.  "The pony magic types are similar enough in frequency that anypony can easily sense other pony magic.  But it's harder to pick up on a griffon's natural magic, or a dragon's.  Even dark magic has a frequency.  In order to identify magic from other races, we need to use special crystals called sensor crystals that glow in response to whichever magic frequency they are set to.  Some of our scout teams have one of each type, but most have one to pick up on pony magic and one for all other types."

Twilight continued from there.  "This is where the problem arises.  A scouting team sent on a brief flight near the impact point of that falling star had the non-pony magic crystal turn on.  By protocol, we then send a team with one of each type of crystal to verify the type of magic.  But the thing is, the only one that reacted was the generic crystal that reacts to any magic that isn't pony magic.  Not a single one of our other crystals reacted, not even the dark and chaos magic detection crystals!  This means we are dealing with a new type of magic, so we have to go investigate NOW in case it's dangerous!"

"I thought I said no lectures.  A simple, 'We detected unknown magic at the crash site' would have sufficed..."

"Regardless,"  interrupted Shining Armor.  "We need to leave.  We already ate.  However, the sun will set soon and a blizzard is pushing against the boundary, so I think you and Flurry should stay here at camp and head back to the palace tomorrow morning.  Maybe play in the snow a bit, but only with guards watching and only if you don't venture too far out into the blizzard."

"Yes, dad."

"Prince Armor," Extrema spoke up.  "You could easily send them back tonight.  It's not safe out there for foals."

Cadence quickly quashed his argument.  "The crystal guard's camp is the safest place to be with most of them here in case we need to protect the border from that magic.  I'd rather them here than near the city, especially if that magic tries to do something to the crystal heart.  Plus, I made them camping outfits.  Look!"  She used her magic to place a deep blue scarf around Flurry's neck and tied a black neckerchief around Comet's neck, as well as a pair of flight goggles on his head.  Comet noticed the neckerchief had a single white four pointed star in the middle, exactly like the eight that made up his cutie mark.  "The dark colors will make the snow stand out on it if you go play in it, so we can have even cuter pictures!  And those goggles look good on you, Comet."

"MOM!"

"Hmph.  Fine.  If I can't convince you, let's just leave before it gets dark.  We can set up camp for the night in the crater, sheltered from the wind and snow. Let's move!"  With a few more hugs, the group was off, and the two best friends settled down to eat dinner while the guards kept watch over the camp.





"These daisies are good.  Fresh.  Want some, Comet?  ...Comet?"  Her FHBFF seemed out of it, gazing at the blizzard held at bay a few minutes away from them.  "That barrier is amazing, isn't it?  Did I tell you I broke it once when I wasn't even a year old?"

"I'm worried about them, Feathers."

"Well, they have that Extrema guy to guide them!  I still can't believe his name meant two things.  Words really aren't always what they seem, huh?"

"Yeah, like an anagram.  Wait a minute..."

"You mean like rearranging the letters in a word to make another, like how you can rearrange silent to make the word listen?"

"Yeah, Feathers.  But now I'm thinking.  That guardspony seemed to stress that words can mean two things.  That things aren't what they seem.  Wait.  He called me 'boy'."

Flurry tilted her head to the side.  "So?"

"So he didn't call me 'colt' or 'sir'.  There's only one creature I know who calls me 'boy'."  He drew some letters in the dirt with his hoof.

E X T R E M A U N I T S

He rewrote the letters a few times in the dirt below it, scuffing out any mangled words.  "Maybe if I exclude a letter or two.  Wait, exclude...  then we get...  oh no."

"What do we get?"  Inquired Flurry Heart, looking over her friend's shoulder.

Comet pulled his goggles over his eyes.  "A no expenses paid trip past the barrier."