//------------------------------// // Meeting Little Miss Stone // Story: The Stub and the Snub // by Wise Cracker //------------------------------// Scootaloo sniffed the air around Lily Park, finding the scent sweet and welcoming. A butterfly decided to land on her snout and rest, before flittering off to find a flower to feed on. The air around here felt different, somehow, more calming, as if there was a magic to it in and of itself. Her heart fluttered much like the butterflies did. Then it sank when she realised that butterfly would have gotten fried if it had landed on Live Wire instead of her, and the cause of his restraining order rose to the front of her mind, as well as her purpose here. “So what are we looking for?” “We’re lookin’ for Live Wire’s friend, obviously,” Apple Bloom replied. The park itself was built around a central lily pond, and bees and butterflies flew back and forth all around the flowers. Even here, though, Unicorns were getting magic practice done. A group of them was doing a yoga class nearby, there were school foals tossing and catching Frisbees with their magic, and one of the groundskeepers walked across the water’s surface to clean up the lily pads. Apparently walking on water was not a difficult trick for the local residents. “Uhuh. And what does this friend look like, again?” Scootaloo asked. “Well…” The little Earth pony groaned and pressed a hoof to her forehead. “Consarnit, Scootaloo, couldn’t you mention that earlier?” “I thought you had it under control,” Scootaloo joked. “We could go back and ask,” Sweetie Belle offered. Apple Bloom growled softly. “No, I’m sure we can find her just like that. With a name like that, we’re lookin’ for a pony who’s got a curvy horn, Eastern Unicorn style. And besides, you heard Live Wire: they’ve got a lot in common.” Sweetie Belle shrugged. “So?” “So, if she’s anythin’ like that colt, all we gotta do is listen for a bang.” Apple Bloom held a hoof to her right ear, and listened. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle shrugged and followed suit. Right on cue, the sounds of hammering and banging, along with the telltale voice of a drill sergeant, came drifting on the wind. “That way,” they said in unison. The source of the noise, as it turned out, was another shooting range, but not of the same sort as where Live Wire had been. This one was placed in a valley about the same size and shape of a tennis court, probably for safety’s sake. The targets here were stationary, and the ponies blasting them were older. Seven training dummies were set up in a line, each with its own set of bullseye markings, each with its own teenage Unicorn standing at a respectable distance, ready to unleash another round of spells. “Okay, single shots this time!” a stallion called out. “I want to see deep impact and a controlled release. This is your last chance to impress me, so make it count. Do you get me?” Scootaloo cringed. There was the drill sergeant, alright. He was a gruff-looking Unicorn with a distinct military green colour coat, and a buzz cut that either meant he was highly disciplined or his barber didn’t like having him in the chair for very long. As one, the children all shouted “We get you, coach Dunderhead, sir!” As the girls went down the stairs leading to the field, the coach went behind each of the teens practising, with a note and quill held aloft in his magic. The first Unicorn let loose a green bolt that splashed across the target’s surface, denting it slightly to the left of its centre. “Not bad, not bad,” he said, nodding. “Go ahead and take off the paper, show it your parents.” With an excited squee, the girl grabbed the paper in her magic, rolled it up, and headed home. The Cutie Mark Crusaders stopped once they were down at the ground level, looking around while coach Dunderhead checked his students, or his recruits, whatever they were supposed to be. Scootaloo was the first to notice the filly all the way in the back. “Err, girls?” She pointed to the last student. “Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” “What’s an Earth pony doing here?” Sweetie Belle asked. “I don’t think that’s an Earth pony,” Scootaloo replied, squinting. “She just has a really, really short horn.” Apple Bloom cocked her head. “Huh, now that you mention it. Think that’s her?” The filly’s baby blue mane was fluffed up and well-kept, which only served to further hide her tiny nub of a horn. Her coat was more of an ice blue, and her eyes a bright violet. But what Scootaloo’s eyes settled on was the flank. The cutie mark on this filly was a rounded yellow triangle with a black border, a danger sign like Live Wire’s. Unlike Live Wire’s, this cutie mark looked more weather-related, as it showed a cloud with raindrops falling down from it. It was the strangest thing, though: the raindrops were round circles instead of drop-shaped, and they were in different sizes. Part of Scootaloo’s Pegasus instincts kicked in then, telling her she really ought to know what that cutie mark meant and she was being very silly in not understanding it right away. “I don’t know,” Sweetie Belle replied as they started towards her. “She doesn’t look like an Eastern Unicorn to me. Aren’t their horns supposed to be sharper? And curvy?” Then coach Dunderhead reached her, right as the Cutie Mark Crusaders did. “Can I help you?” Dunderhead asked. “Oh, we were just wondering what’s going on,” Sweetie Belle said. “Preliminary evaluation for the Fitness Test, and tryouts for the markspony team,” he replied. “You’re a little late if you wanted to measure up.” “That’s okay, sir, we’re here on, umm, other business. We were sent by Princess Twilight,” Apple Bloom said. “Uhuh. Well, you’re welcome to watch, we’re nearly done here anyway.” He nodded to the blue filly. “Ready?” “Ready, sir,” came the reply. “Fire away, then.” Scootaloo shivered, and found it odd that she was the only one to do so. The wave of cold that radiated from the girl was palpable. Neither Sweetie Belle nor Apple Bloom noticed. They noticed the shot, though. The shot was hard to miss. With a calm, graceful swish of her head and horn, the girl conjured up a hailstone the size of an apple and launched it with the sudden force of a cannonball straight into the centre of the target, making the cardboard and paper crumple around it, as well as sending tremors through the Earth. Scootaloo would have gasped if she’d remembered to breathe. Fortunately, Apple Bloom was there to pick up the slack. “W-what in the world? I ain’t seen artillery shots like that since Granny Smith’s last Civil War re-enactment!” Dunderhead whistled, impressed. “Yup, that’s a proper skull-cracker right there. No change from before, I see.” The girl sighed. “No, sir.” “Have you been trying the Frisbee thing?” he asked. “Yes,” she said with a solemn nod. “And the pebble exercise?” She looked away. “Yes.” “And what about–“ “I’ve been doing everything, sir. Everything you told me to,” the filly said, stifling a sob. “This is all I’ve got.” Coach Dunderhead glanced at the girls, and Scootaloo was pretty sure he wanted to say something personal, but stopped short because of the audience. He smiled instead. “Good. Keep it up, then, you’ll be up to speed in no time. Go ahead and collect your paper.” “Up to speed?” Apple Bloom whispered as the girl went to collect her paper. “You mean that shot wasn’t good enough?” “Maybe she’s trying to get into a league with older foals?” Scootaloo suggested. “That’s how Rainbow Dash got started.” “Assumin’ this is that Haylee girl. But I don’t see how–” Apple Bloom slapped herself. “Right, of course. It’s Hail-y, not Hay Lee.” “That’s me,” Haily said, her paper stowed in her saddlebag. “Can I help you?” Sweetie Belle smiled in greeting. “Umm, hi. We’re the Cutie Mark Crusaders: this is Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, and my name’s Sweetie Belle.” “I know you,” Haily replied. “You’ve been in the papers. And why are you here?” Sweetie Belle flinched ever so slightly at the girl’s tone. “Well, we were sent here to solve a friendship problem, and we think it might have something to do with you and Live Wire. Why don’t you want to go to story time at the library with him anymore?” “Or play Ogres and Oubliettes?” Apple Bloom added. “Or do drama with him?” Scootaloo finished, before thinking it over. “Well, actually, quitting drama’s not a bad idea, but all that other stuff? Do you just hate Live Wire now?” “Live Wire?” Dunderhead asked. “You’re avoiding him now? Really, Haily, of all the ponies you should cut from your life...” The girl grumbled. “With all due respect, that’s none of your concern, sir.” “Seems like a wasted opportunity, is all,” the stallion said. Haily sighed and turned to the Crusaders. “You talked to Live Wire? You’ve met him?” “Yup,” Sweetie Belle replied. “And I kind of went to kindergarten with him. Before he moved, obviously.” “Then you know why I don’t want to be around him anymore,” Haily said with a snort. “He’s so immature, always going on and on about being a Royal Guard, about this new spell he wants to show off like some… peacock! I don’t want anything to do with him or his childish hobbies.” Apple Bloom winced. “Oh. So he’s not your friend anymore. Does that still count as a friendship problem, then?” “No.” Haily let her head hang. “I mean, he is still my friend, kinda, I guess, but…” She shook her head, and started speaking in a much more fancy-sounding way, nose in the air like a Canterlot pony. “Look, I have another appointment, I am very busy getting my affairs in order, so if you wish to continue this, you’re going to have to tag along.” “Tag along where?” Haily nodded towards the stairs behind her. “Miss Mooncalf. She’s a meditation coach.” Dunderhead let out an indignant whinny, nostrils flared in disgust. “That mare? For pity’s sake, why do you keep going to her? You know she’s only gonna make it worse, Miss Stone.” “I don’t care,” Haily replied. “At least I get something out of it.” “Suit yourself. But don’t expect me to go easy on you just because you insist on making your own life difficult.” Scootaloo looked to the coach for an answer, but he merely walked away, leaving the girls to their own devices. “Make what worse?” Starlight gazed in awe, as she had in the past, at the menhir in the centre of the room. Before her stood a roughly egg-shaped rock of about six heads high, made of an obsidian-like material that could absorb and contain magic, a more refined though less powerful variant of the crude stone that once made up Chrysalis’s throne. The Rousettus Stone. It was on display in the Cornucopia Museum for Magical Curiosities and Monuments, tucked away in a far corner of the lower levels where the tourists usually didn’t bother coming, aside from those with niche interests. It had been a gift from bat-winged ponies, as a thanks to the Unicorns who’d spent countless hours working to cure a plague that nearly wiped out the tribe. Lord Rousettus, leader of the strange skin-winged ponies of the mountains, had likewise seen the plight of the Unicorn wizards, who were, at the time, starting to run out of talent under the pressures put upon them by royalty and tradition. In the event that all master wizards were to lose their power or knowledge, or even their very lives, Rousettus wanted Unicorns to always have some source of magic to fall back on. That source was the stone, or it should have been. A wizard of some repute himself, Rousettus had imbued the stone with sigils that would reveal secrets of magic to anyone who could look at them in a particular wizardly fashion. Starlight had gotten a few secrets doing just that when she studied here. Though not commonly known, the Rousettus Stone was an important part of magical history. In its function, it was an important back-up, to be called upon in case of grave emergency. Every pony library in the world could burn to the ground, every master wizard could be lost, but the stone would ensure there would always be a path to magic mastery. Purely as a symbol, it was a proper reminder to use magic for good, to think ahead and anticipate problems, as well as to stay open for new insights from unlikely, even tenebrous, places. Needless to say, Starlight was shocked to see the state it was in. “How did it get cracked?” “Keep your voice down, Starlight,” Horizon said. “It was an accident.” Starlight shook her head and assessed the damage. The sigils floating underneath the black glassy surface were shaking, like a fractured reflection. At least three major sites of impact were visible, and on the right side of the black menhir a piece had been shot clean off. “How do you crack a stone like this by accident? Were you trying a new spell?” Horizon held his front hooves up. “It wasn’t me, no, no. The local school organised a field trip, you see, and we had a little scavenger hunt for the younglings. You know, riddles and clues, and stamps if they found all the landmarks, give them a little thrill while they’re looking around. No one ever comes down here, but one of the clues was meant to lead them to this. Bit of a challenge, sort out the really clever ones. Two of them came here. Wasn’t an easy riddle to get, but they figured it out, only ones in their class to do so, too. They got excited when they managed to fill out their little paper with the last stamp, but then some of the other kids started fooling around in the monster section, somepony hit the ‘roar’ button on the manticore model, and...” Starlight winced. “They had a misfire.” Red Horizon’s ears fell back. “Exactly. One of them got startled, slipped and bumped into the other one, and they both let loose on the first thing in their line of sight. I got here right after, and they were upset, obviously. Poor things, they were shaking like leaves. It was a stupid accident, it could have happened to anyone.” “I doubt that.” Starlight walked around the stone to check for any details. It was clean shooting, alright. No signs of any absorption, none of the little dents that came from a resisted spell, the magic had cracked right through the block like a sledgehammer, except up top, where it had cleanly cut it like a knife through butter. Whoever had done this must have been taking lessons. “Isn’t this thing supposed to be immune to magic?” “Resistant, Starlight, not immune. The two are very different, as you know. And some types of magic, it is not resistant to at all, need I remind you?” Starlight rolled her eyes. “No, but the only things it’s not immune to are… wait, I thought you said little foals did this? How little are we talking here?” “As old as your companions, actually. They’re locals.” He dismissively waved a hoof. “But, at any rate, this is what I need your help with. I collected all the pieces, I can cast the restoration spell to put the stone back in order, but I cannot do that and keep the sigils intact at the same time. I don’t have the mental fortitude to hold that kind magic as well as cast the spells to mend it. I don’t think anyone does, for that matter. For that, I need you. This is clearly a two-wizard job.” She nodded as it finally dawned on her. “Right. The magic those things are made of is almost the same as cutie mark magic, now I see. But why would you need me? The other masters know that spell, too, don’t they?” Horizon smiled sadly. “They do, but they are not informed on the matter, and I’d like to keep it that way. I don’t want to have to explain how this happened. They’re just children, Starlight, I don’t want them to get in trouble over this.” Starlight took the hint. “That Live Wire boy was one of them, huh?” He winced and nodded. “You always were clever at reading ponies. Yes, it was him. Well, him and his friend, little Miss Stone, another fine talent.” She chuckled. “She’d have to be, if she could do this.” “They both are, yes, very powerful for their age, by any metric. So I hope you understand, I’d rather not make things worse on them. They have enough to worry about as it is, with power like that on such small frames. You’re the only student of mine who knows that spell, and that I trust. Of course, if you don’t feel up to it, I could still ask one of the other masters, or even Discord.” Starlight still stared at the stone. To cause this kind of damage, to a rock like this, it shouldn’t have been possible, even with lightning magic. The sonic ripples of magical thunder, maybe, but would that little boy be that advanced already, or was it his friend who caused most of the damage? Curiosity gnawed at her, but she pushed such thoughts aside. “No, no, I get it, I get it. This shouldn’t take long, just tell me what to do and we can get started right away.” “Thank you, Starlight.” She grimaced. “It’s the least I could do.” Miss Mooncalf reminded Scootaloo of Tree Hugger, Fluttershy’s companion at the last Grand Galloping Gala. The mare had the same hairstyle, the same slow manner of speaking, and her choice of topics tended to lean towards the same boring kinds of silliness. Mooncalf was a Unicorn, though, as most ponies here were, and her coat was more of a dark moon blue than light green. Her mane was a lighter blue with a white streak to it, neatly kept behind her with a bandana. She was also excruciatingly dull. “And exhale, feel the negativity leave your system. Aooommm...” Scootaloo stifled a yawn. Fifteen minutes of guided meditation, the only thing more boring than doing it was having to watch Sweetie Belle and Haily do it. Neither Scootaloo nor Apple Bloom had wanted to try, and listening to the droning affirmations of positive thinking and inner lights had not changed Scootaloo’s mind in the slightest. She wasn’t sure why Apple Bloom shared the sentiment, but she could take a wild guess. “Okay, now that that’s finally over and done with,” Apple Bloom said once the session was over. “Can you please tell us what Live Wire did that’s so bad?” Mooncalf huffed before the girl could answer. “He fills her head with nonsense, that’s what. A strong, independent filly like you shouldn’t let herself be put down by a boy like that.” Haily nodded. “I already told you: Live Wire’s just a child. I need to be around more mature ponies, like Coach Dunderhead and Miss Mooncalf.” Mooncalf gasped and put a hoof on the girl’s shoulder for comfort. “Oh, sweetie, you went to Dunderhead, of all ponies? I thought we went over this. You know he can’t help.” Again, Haily grumbled at the remark. “I know. I just wanted to make sure.” Scootaloo felt her heart sink. “Make sure of what?” “That she is handicapped, of course,” Mooncalf replied cheerfully, straightening her posture to appear more scholarly. “The sooner you accept it, Haily, the sooner you will find inner peace. It’s quite alright. I talked with my sister, incidentally, and she agrees you’d make a wonderful assistant in her ice cream parlour.” “Thank you, Miss Mooncalf, but I am still keeping my options open.” Haily forced out a smile. “Well, the offer stands.” Sweetie Belle shook her head. “Wait, wait, hold on. What handicap? You look pretty normal to me.” “My horn is too small, okay?” Haily tapped the little nub beneath her hairdo. “Really?” Sweetie Belle looked to Scootaloo’s wings. Scootaloo did not appreciate the comparison one bit, but remained silent on the matter. “I’m pretty sure I’ve seen smaller.” “Ugh. You want me to spell it out for you? Fine: I don’t want to play Ogres and Oubliettes any more because I don’t want to spend my time pretending to be something I know I’m never gonna be. I don’t want to go to story time at the library because I am tired of hearing stories about all the things I can’t do.” Haily gritted her teeth. “And I don’t want to be around Live Wire anymore because he’s always going on and on about being a Royal Guard, being a hero, learning epic new spells and I am sick of him making me feel bad!” Scootaloo shrugged. “Well, you could at least try telling him that first. He could stop doing what he’s doing that’s making you feel bad.” “It wouldn’t help, because it’s not just him. He’s just the worst, is all. He’s got all these big dreams, he keeps dragging me to practice to show off all these spells he’s mastered. He’s…” Haily gulped. “He’s talented, and he’s going to live his dreams. I’m not. So there’s no point in us being friends anymore.” Sweetie Belle winced. “So... you’re jealous? That’s why you don’t want to be friends anymore?” "No. I’m not jealous, I’m tired. I’m tired of going through the motions. I’m tired of him dragging me to the same things over and over again, I’m tired of hating all the things he likes. He...” She took a deep breath and bit her lip. “Live Wire knows where he belongs. I don’t. He’ll ace that test. I won’t. He’s got a purpose, a dream, fun hobbies, and ponies who support him, and I’m tired of having that thrown in my face every single time we do something together. He gets to have all that and I don’t, because I… can’t… lift!” The girls all blinked as one. Apple Bloom was the first to speak up. “Come again?”