//------------------------------// // Chapter 22: The Element of Magic // Story: Fillies and Monsters // by Solaris Vult //------------------------------// “Lavender Lake… John Brown… Nia Whitemane… Night Shade. The four of you retrieved the black pawn pieces, from now on you will work together as, Team Legend, lead by Lavender Lake.” Ozpin spoke as, when their names were called, students filed onto the upper platform in the auditorium. It was late in the evening, the sun had set, and the students all had some time to recover from their excursion through the woods, most had returned intact, but more than a few had scratches, cuts, or bruises. “Joan Grey... Angel Pico… Cerule Quinn… Koa Van. The four of you retrieved the white bishop pieces, from now you will work together as, Team Jack, lead by Joan Grey.” Already several other teams had been put together, now the fillies waited alongside Ruby, Jaune, and the few others that they had come to know at this school. “Russel Thrush… Cardin Winchester… Dove Bronzewing… Sky Lark. The four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces, from this day forward you will work together as, Team Cardinal, lead by Cardin Winchester.” More clapping followed as the newly formed team marched their way off the stage. The fillies eagerly awaited their turn, knowing that they would most likely be on the same team, as they had retrieved, together, the white queen piece. Jaune waved to the others as he, Pyrrha, Nora, and the quiet one all made their way to the stage as Ozpin said their names. “Jaune Arc… Lie Ren… Pyrrha Nikos… Nora Valkyrie. The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces, from this day forward you will work together as, team Juniper, lead by Jaune Arc.” Jaune wore a look of confusion as the ever excited Nora hugged the quiet boy next to her, and Pyrrha simply smiled as she knocked the boy over before helping him back up. Ruby was next to wave to the girls as she stepped toward the stage. “Blake Belladonna… Ruby Rose… Weiss Schnee… And Yang Xiao Long. The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces, from this day forward you will work together as, team Ruby, lead by Ruby Rose.” Yang ran over to hug her sister, shouting, “I’m so proud of you!” While Weiss looked on in shock, but they made their way off stage to clear room for the last team to be assembled, all while Weiss continued to stare at Ruby. The fillies trotted their way onto the stage, Scootaloo’s wings flapping in excitement, and Apple Bloom’s tail swishing back and forth. Sweetie wore a simple smile while Diamond kept a neutral and reserved look as their names were called. “And finally… Scootaloo Allgood… Diamond Tiara… Sweetie Belle… And Apple Macintosh. The four of you retrieved the white queen pieces, from this day onward you will work together as, team Trass, lead by…” Sweetie smiled, as Scootaloo and Apple Bloom looked at her, “Diamond Tiara.” “What?” Apple Bloom muttered. Sweetie’s smile faded as Scootaloo turned to look at the pink-maned girl, who was equally shocked, said shock turned to a look of pride a moment later. They made their way off stage, Ozpin muttering something to himself in the background. Weiss was angry, for many reasons, but managed to keep herself under control… That was until one tiny little thing sent her over the edge. She had set her things next to her bed in her team’s new dorm room, she was thankful for getting a team of all girls, but that relief was overshadowed by the dunce of a leader they had. She was replacing the fire dust she had expended in the forest, she opened her rapier’s chamber up and pulled out the expended dust cartridges, popping them open, and drawing replacement dust vials from a briefcase. Strange, plant dust was usually a darker green, this looked more like off-colour wind dust… Wait, she didn’t have any plant dust on her, and she didn’t keep any wind dust in this briefcase. She looked down at the label, Fire Dust… Why was fire dust green, it was never green, sometimes dust would have a slightly different colour than normal, but fire dust was always a shade of red or orange. This was the one… “Ruby Rose!” Weiss shouted. “What is it now Weiss,” Ruby said from the bathroom, her voice easily loud enough to penetrate the sound of a running shower. “What did you do to my dust!” Ruby peaked her head, dripping with water, around the doorframe, “I didn’t do anything to your dust!” “Ruby! Get back in the shower!” Weiss yelled, covering her eyes as the naked form of her leader marched into the room, “And don’t get water on the carpet!” “Fineeee,” Ruby whined. “Well, someone did something to my fire dust, it’s all green.” “Green? Like a minty green?” Ruby asked. “Yes, what did you do to it!” “I don’t know, ask Sweetie Belle.” “That faunus girl? What does she have to do with this, you were the one who was messing with my dust yesterday!” “I don’t know, but whenever she uses her semblance on dust it turns green... I saw her turn a big chunk of electricity dust green.” Weiss growled in the back of her throat… Of course, it was the faunus girl, it was always the faunus that messed with her life, it was always the faunus that caused trouble... That girl probably screwed up her dust on purpose to mess with the life of a Schnee, they would do anything to insult, assault, harm, and kill her family, all for some stupid idea that they mistreated their kind… Couldn’t they see that they deserved to be treated the way they are for all the violence and death they cause? Couldn’t they just leave her alone! Twilight crossed over a hill and finally caught a glimpse of the source of the distant light. A city, a cloud city! No… Not a cloud city, there were no clouds, it was a floating landmass, levitating over a much larger city underneath… It reminded her of Rainbow Falls, of both a flying city and surface city interconnected, except liquid rainbow wasn’t flowing from magically enriched clouds. Instead, the city above had a slight blue tint, as the glowing blue lights cast cold colours across the sky, meanwhile, the city below was illuminated orange.  “Woah… How are they doing that, I don’t see any clouds!” Rainbow Dash gasped. “I don’t think those cables can hold up such a large landmass… And I don’t want to think about how much cloud it would take to keep all that in the air,” Spitfire retorted. “The magic being used here must be incredible… You wouldn’t know just how hard it is to keep something floating without constant telekinesis,” Rarity commented. “Levitation enchantments don’t last very long, and are hard to pull off unless one is experienced in telekinetic manipulation…” Twilight was prancing in place, she had disguised her alien armour to look like a simple winter robe with arms, “Look at this, imagine turning all of Canterlot into a flying city like this one! Imagine everything we could do with this magic!” “Well then,” Rainbow Dash said, “Let’s hurry up, it isn’t getting any warmer out here…” “One moment, I need to document this!” Twilight said, levitating out her camera and taking several photos of both the city above, the city below, and the shattered moon. “Spike, send a letter to the princesses, and attach these photos,” Twilight commented, passing the dragon the stack of images. “Already on it!” “Dear Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Princess Mi Amore Cadenza… In my expedition into this alien world, I have come across a type of flying city, similar to Cloudsdale, Las Pegasus, and Rainbow Falls upper districts. Attached to this letter are images of the city, and the city below it, as it appears to have an even larger city below the primary floating landmass. As you will notice, this landmass isn’t held up by clouds, so some kind of magic is most likely involved. The lower city is lit with several orange lights, I presume they are using fire-based illumination, meanwhile, the levitating landmass is illuminated blue, I presume magic-based illumination is in use in the upper city… I as of yet do not know the reason for this discrepancy, perhaps the reason is economic or ability-based, such as a higher concentration of unicorns, or this world’s equivalent, living in the upper city… Attached are also images of this world’s broken moon, I would like Luna to inspect the images and report her thoughts on the subject. Princess Twilight Sparkle.” Sweetie didn’t want to be in the room right now, Scootaloo was reading her comics, Apple Bloom was in the shower, and Diamond was yelling at everyone for being lazy blank-flanks… And so she sat outside JNPR’s room, hiding from Diamond’s control. Suddenly, the door on the other side of the hall opened, and out stepped the girl in pure white, wearing some kind of short dress. “Weiss?” Sweetie asked. She pulled out a vial of dust, green dust, minty green dust… Oh… “What exactly did you do to my dust!” The girl growled, closing the door behind her. Sweetie instinctively raised her arms to block a blow, “I-I just used a bit of telekinesis on it, I-I don’t really know what it does to the dust, it j-just happens whenever I use my powers on it.” “Can you reverse it! Can I still use my dust! If it’s unusable you’ll be paying for it!” “Y-Yes, I think you can still use the dust, I think… Twilight told me once about different kinds of magic, o-of power being bonded to certain ponies… Or, ere, people, b-but I don’t think that’s what I did to your dust, I think it’s just a colour change from exposure to my energy… M-My aura… It should still work fine… Probably…” “I did not understand a word you just said…” Weiss replied, still angry. “L-Look…” Sweetie said, waving her hand and floating over the vial. Weiss quickly snatched it out of the air, “I’m not going to hurt it… Just test it.” Reluctantly, Weiss let go of the vial and Sweetie took it in her hand, unplugging the cork and telekinetically raising the dust out of the vial.” “T-That’s an impressive semblance there,” Weiss said. “The professors keep calling it energy manipulation, I just call it magic.” Weiss looked confused, “Don’t be ridiculous, semblances aren’t magic… Where did you get that idea?” “Well, look…” Sweetie said, snapping her fingers in an imitation of discord. At that, the fire dust started to emit green fire, just tiny little flames around each particulate, but enough to cast a dim green light, and send little yellow-green sparks dancing around in the air… Weiss stared, entranced at something Sweetie couldn’t quite fathom. “W-What is it?” “The dust, it’s not disappearing, that fire should have only lasted a few seconds before the dust is all used up…” “Well duh… Sure, there’s energy in the dust, but I’m not actually using that energy, I’m using my own, and simply channelling it through the dust… The way you do things sounds so inefficient.” “But, how… It’s impossible to use your aura like that!” Sweetie shrugged, “You want to see some other spells I know?” Weiss raised an eyebrow, but didn’t object, and so Sweetie raised her hand and created a small bubble-shield in her palm. “Shields are kinda tricky, Twilight, a friend of mine, showed me this a while ago, it’s hard, but I’ve gotten the hang of it… The hardest part is making the shield a certain size and shape, luckily there’s some safeties written into the spell-matrix that prevent shields being created inside solid matter, that way I don’t cut something apart or hurt someone.” “S-Spell matrix?” Weiss asked… “Yeah, don’t you use them, I’ve seen you make one… By the way, really good work with the matrix, if a bit uncreative, I don’t see why you don’t just make the matrixes in your head and cast the spell without the need for the illusionary glyphs.” “W-What do you mean? My semblance? What do you know about my semblance!” “I know that it’s really inefficient… Watch,” With that Sweetie raised her hand and created a simple illusion of light, telekinesis without the force, simply the glow. She twisted her power into a circle, “See this, all matrices, with a few exceptions, are based inside the circle…” She then pulled her power outward, creating a circle within the circle, “Some have two or even three concentric circles, these make the spell more stable, at the cost of increasing the complexity and power requirements…” She dispelled the inner circle but kept the external one, “Next, you need some kind of pattern, this is what gives the structure of the spell, it’s the base of the code you’re going to be putting into the pattern.” With that, a triangle of light appeared within the circle, “Triangles are the most basic, but other people work better with other shapes, Twilight uses a six-pointed star… Rarity, my sister, uses concentric diamonds, and I use hexagrams… But of course, any shape will work.” Weiss stared, entranced. “That looks just like-” “Yep,” Sweetie copied Weiss’s glyph to the best of her memory, it wasn’t perfect, but it was close enough to use as a demonstration, “See, you’ve added a lot of unnecessary structure, it’s two concentric circles, inside which is a hexagon, inside another, overcomplicated, hexagon, with six arrow-shapes pointing out from the sides of the outer hexagon, and these bigger pointier arrow shapes facing out of the outer hexagon’s faces… It’s great for really advanced spells, but for simpler abilities, it’s just way too complicated, I can see why you need to create an illusionary representation of it when casting… Keeping all that in your head would be a nightmare.” “What do you mean? I can’t follow a word you’re saying…” Sweetie sighed, “I’ll just start from the beginning… Look, where I come from, some pon… People, can share their abilities with these shapes, we call them spell-matrixes.” “Y-You can share semblances?” Weiss wore a look of confusion and worry… And no small amount of sarcasm, as if she really didn’t believe it. “I guess you can think of it that way… Now, back to what I was talking about, just try to create a simple hexagon inside the circle…” Weiss just scoffed, “You’re just crazy, you can’t share semblances, you can’t do magic, you’re just a confused little faunus girl with a rare and powerful semblance that seems magical, at least to you…” Sweetie just sighed, “You really don’t believe me, even after doing magic yourself…” “Look…” Weiss just said, “Will my dust work or not…” Sweetie handed Weiss her vial of green fire dust, “Yep, it should… I think…” “You think?” Weiss said, unimpressed. “Yes…” “Well, if it doesn’t work anymore, you’re paying for it…” “Fine… Just talk to Diamond, she’s in charge now, and that means she’s in charge of the money…” Weiss walked back to Team RWBY’s room, leaving Sweetie alone in the hall once again, she went over in her mind the strange way the humans and faunus thought of magic… To them, magic wasn’t real, instead, they used Aura and Semblances, obvious uses of magic to a pony, but called them something else… Whatever kind of magic it was, it was certainly less flexible than pony magic, it was more like a unique power, like Fluttershy’s stare, which was a kind of magic, just something more ingrained into a pony… Like a cutie mark… Like a cutie mark… That was one way to think of semblances, like cutie marks… Sweetie’s train of thought was disrupted when she heard a voice call down from the hall, “Sweetie Belle,” Said Diamond, “It’s time to go to sleep, I will not have you sleeping in for our first day of class… I will not be getting a bad grade thanks to your lazy blank-flank butt!” Sweetie sighed… Then pulled herself up off the floor.