A Phoenix Beyond the Veil - The Philospher's Stone

by gerandakis

49 - Playing With Fire

A smile graced Princess Celestia's face as she looked up from where she was teaching Twilight her latest magic lesson and to the book on her shelf that had once more begun vibrating and glowing. Making sure to keep an eye on the filly, she took the journal into her magic and lifted it before her, opening to the latest page and beginning to read.

Celestia thought about the statement for a moment. She couldn't deny that there was a certain wisdom behind it, but mostly she was curious what might have caused her former student to tell her this. She went on reading.

Twilight looked up from her training, watching as her mentor's expression darkened, growing ever more troubled as she read on. She had learned weeks ago that the book was the journal the princess used to stay in contact with Sunset. She only relaxed when she saw Celestia's face light up towards the end of the message. Finally, the princess let her eyes jump over to her desk, floating a quill over.

With a smile, the Princess closed the journal and returned her attention to Twilight's training, already considering how much of what she had just learned she would tell the curious filly when she would inevitably ask.

When lunch came around on Saturday, the group returned from the grounds where they had visited Hagrid. Sunset had been able to come along this time. Her comparative magic studies with Professor Flitwick would only begin after lunch had ended.

She made her way to his office in record time, thanks to all the shortcuts through the castle they had discovered. He welcomed her in jovially, well aware that he was likely to learn just as much as he taught.

"So then, Miss Shimmer, have you thought of a topic we should cover today?"

Sunset chuckled. "I did. Actually I'm kinda surprised I didn't think of this sooner. It is my specialty after all. Pyromancy."

"Spells dealing with fire, you mean?"

The two began demonstrating the various fire based spells they knew for several minutes, respectively watching the other with an aura sight spell. Eventually, Professor Flitwick stated that he only knew one more spell, but that it was one he wouldn't demonstrate. Something he called 'Fiendfyre'.

"Ah, a dark magic fire spell. I see. Probably a counterpart to this." She once more let her hand light up with teal magic, before it shifted to the pale gold Flitwick had come to connect with her light magic. In moments, a ring of pale golden flames formed around her hand, even as the hand itself stopped glowing. She played with the pale golden flames for a few moments, and Flitwick had to admit that it looked rather fun.

The fire didn't burn her, and she seemed entirely comfortable with it, smiling as the flames snaked up her arm and wove into her hair, forming a little crown on her head. Most surprising of all, however, was that even she seemed surprised by that. Had she not made it do that? Had the magic acted on its own?

That alone was a startling discovery. All his life he had learned to treat magic as a force. A tool, even a weapon. Used to accomplish his goals. The girl before him, however, seemed to be treating it like an old and reliable friend. And the magic seemed to respond in turn, acting almost alive. Was this part of the independence she had ascribed to light magic? He had to ask.

"Is this another example of light magic acting on its own?"

The girl looked over to him and nodded. "Yes, I'm letting it more or less do its own thing. This spell is my specialty. Being light magic, it will never harm me, and even beyond that it won't burn anything unless I want it to or it's dark in nature."

"So for light magic it is actually viable to let the magic act on its own?"

"Yes. Like I said, it isn't actively harmful unless I want it to, even if it is fire."

"How very strange. That's actually a completely foreign concept to me. Over here we're only used to normal magic, which won't really do anything on its own, and dark magic which has to be controlled, to stop it from harming the caster. Now, mind you, not all dark magic is as ... volatile as fiendfyre, but it all needs a certain level of control."

"And at the same time, light magic is perfectly safe to let go on its own and harmonic magic and chaos magic can't really be controlled at all, you just tell them what to do and hope that they will."

Sunset chuckled a little. "Anyway. I think we should get back to work shouldn't we?"

For a good hour or so, they worked on combining the more mundane fire spells of both worlds ending up with a spell that was remarkably efficient, much more so than any of the ones they had started with and allowed for supreme control over the size and temperature of the flame.

Flitwick sighed a little. "If only we had a way to sustain this. Potion makers up and down the country would love us for it. We could make it an enchantment, of course, but that would make the control aspect very tricky and likely much less precise."

Sunset nodded thoughtfully. "It probably would ... unless ..."

"Do you have an idea?"

"I think so ... this may not be a problem to be solved with magic alone ... if I ... yes, that could work ... Of course the muggles of this world know much more about this than ponies do. Not to mention I was never too up to date on the topic myself. I'll have to do some research. But I think I might be able to make that happen. But if we are to make it work for potions, we should cover another topic."

Flitwick was intrigued. What was she up to? What idea could she have had? And what would the muggles know about it? Still, he decided to humor her and see where it would lead. "And what topic is that?"

"Shields."

"Shields you say? Very well. We have a few shielding charms. The obvious one is of course the Protego Charm. It's very well liked among duelists. It's not very efficient, but it can hold off one or two powerful spells, not to mention it's pretty universal. Most of our other shielding charms are magnitudes more efficient, but highly specialised."

Another hour later, they had managed to create a new shield spell as well. A powerful and efficient thermal shield that, if integrated into an enchantment, would easily resist even the heat from something such as a molten cauldron. Exactly what Sunset needed.

On Sunday, two major things happened. First, Harry had his first training session with the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, who seemed highly impressed by his skill. By the end of their practice, Fred and George actually started suggesting to just keep an eye on the enemy seeker for a few minutes, to make sure they didn't catch the snitch first, then catch it after the game had gone on for a while, just to give the rest of the teams a chance to actually do anything.

Harry had to admit they had a point.

The other major thing happened atop Gryffindor Tower. Sunset stood alone on the roof. Waiting for a very familiar sight. She didn't need to wait for long. In a flash of golden fire, Philomena joined her on the roof, happily gliding down to land on her shoulder. But she hadn't come alone.

A woman in a flowing white dress stood before them. The fabric was patterned with gold and she wore a golden necklace and a tiara, each holding large purple gemstones. She was tall, radiating power and wisdom, and stood with otherworldly grace.

Which lasted exactly until she tried taking her first step and fell forward.

Well prepared, Sunset had her magic ready and caught her easily. "Well princess. Welcome, to Hogwarts." She walked over to Celestia, taking her hand and helping her walk over to the edge of the tower to look over the school's grounds.

"It is rather pretty to look at, isn't it?"

Sunset nodded. "That it is. Still, it isn't why we're here."

"True. That it isn't."

The two of them spent several minutes walking, jogging and ultimately running in circles around the top of the tower. After the Princess had mastered bipedal locomotion, they moved on to help Celestia resume her equine shape while here. Sunset wasn't at all surprised that Celestia managed the transformation after only half an hour. She had, after all, had eons to grow familiar with her magical essence. And with manipulating it.  After hugging Sunset in human shape and finding that she preferred the experience as a pony, the princess returned to Equestria.

Now, however, she would be ready for her meeting with Professor Dumbledore the following week.

Sunset, meanwhile, switched out of her school robes and teleported to London. Looking to find a place where she could find a book on basic electronics. She had some research to do.

When Sunset returned that evening with several electronic components, Hermione was rightly confused as to what she planned to do, over the next week she would learn what her sister had planned.

Professor Flitwick, however had to wait until Saturday.

Filius Flitwick felt a mixture of joy and curiosity as he heard the knock on his office door. Wondering how Miss Shimmer would surprise him today, he waved his wand to open the door. "Now will you tell me what your idea was?"

The girl before him smirked. "I'll do you one better. I'll show you." She opened her bag and pulled out two small devices. The first was a square brass box that had several metal bars sticking out of the corners at the top and a red crystal sitting in the center, surrounded by four smaller crystals. The other device was a wooden contraption with two dials and two switches, as well as four displays like he had seen on muggle devices. All the controls were covered by a glass plate that was attached on a hinge so the cover could be flipped aside when it wasn't needed.

"Now what is this?"

"Well. I found that using magic to control the spell we created in an enchantment wasn't feasible."

Flitwick nodded. He knew that much. The spell lost too much of the precision in deciding the temperature and the size of the flame that was its main draw.

"So I used technology instead. Look." She flipped the cover aside, brought both dials to the minimal position and flicked the left switch. With a faint hum, the box came to life, the displays above each control lighting up and displaying numbers. The small crystals on the other device lit up a soft teal and a wave of teal magic ran over the brass box.

Drawing his wand, Flitwick cast an aura sight charm, recognizing that both devices had a multitude of enchantments on them, as well as an internal buffer of magic. The teal shimmer, he realized, was that of the thermal shield they had come up with the week before, combined with a weak shield against physical impacts. With a satisfied smile, the girl flicked the second switch and the red crystal in the center came to life. A flame appeared in the air above it, outside the shield, and remained there.

He watched as Miss Shimmer turned the left dial, the number above it climbing slowly while the flame grew in size. When she had brought it to the maximum position, the flame was a foot tall. She quickly dialed it back to a more moderate size, then began twisting the second knob. It only took him a moment before he noticed that the flame was getting noticeable brighter and hotter. Again the display above the knob she was twisting displayed steadily higher numbers, but he noticed that it was a bit wider and didn't stop climbing at '100', instead climbing ever higher until finally stopping at '900'.

Seeing how the office was getting rather toasty, Miss Shimmer quickly dialed back the heat and the size of the flame, before extinguishing it by flicking the right switch back up. Once the flame was gone, she flicked the left switch up as well, causing the displays to shut down and letting the shield dissipate.

He stood there in stunned silence for a moment. "How?"

The girl smirked again. "Turns out using muggle electronics to control the enchantment is a lot more precise."