//------------------------------// // Ch. 7 Rarity's School for Ungifted Pegasi // Story: Dash of Humanity 3: Live, Fly, Reboot. // by Kaidan //------------------------------// One of the unspoken benefits of reliving the same day over and over is you get really good at avoiding ponies. When I don’t feel like hearing Roseluck mock my bed head with a quip about Mondays, I know exactly where she’ll be. Fifteen minutes after I wake up she’s watering her flowers. She heads indoors about half an hour after that, then goes to work once she puts her gardening tools away. She’s trapped in her routine, like the rest of Ponyville. The easiest way to avoid her is to just take to the sky first thing when I leave my home. As long as I don’t take too long getting ready in the morning, it’s easy to stop by the construction site before the earth pony gets pancaked. It’s kind of ironic, the pony has an hourglass for a cutie mark, and now he’s on-time to his own death day after day. I might have to ask him one of these days what his job is. From my vantage point a few hundred feet in the air it’s trivial to spot the part of town Lyra lives in. I dive down, picking up speed until it begins to blur my vision, pulling up at the last second and zooming straight down the street. My hooves are only inches off the ground, scattering dust and small stones across the street like I’m doing some sort of street luge. Scootaloo would be proud. I flared my wings and jammed my hooves into the dirt to come to an abrupt halt. I had been going so fast I almost plowed straight through Lyra, and it took a minute for the dust cloud around us to clear. “D-Dawn?!” Lyra coughed on some of the dust. “Lyra.” I reached out a hoof. “Come with me if you want to live.” She raised an eyebrow and looked at me skeptically, before shrugging and reaching out to take my hoof. I smiled, and pulled her beside me, walking down the road towards Rarity’s House. “And that, Lyra, is why you’re one of my top three mares.” She was always ready to help me out, and easily amused by my antics. “Oh, wow, you really know how to flatter a pony,” she quipped. “So what’s with the action hero routine?” “So it turns out Ponyville is trapped in a time loop, and I’m the only pony who remembers it. I figure you and Rarity can teach me everything you know about magic and time travel. Once I learn enough, I can devise a spell for you two to cast to fix everything. Genius, right?” I asked. Lyra thought it over for a minute before replying. “Son of a gun, I’m in. So you’re trying to figure out a time spell? Have you asked Minuette for help?” “The mare that moved from Canterlot?” “Yeah, she was at Celestia's school with Twilight and I.” Lyra shot a glance around and leaned in closer. “Rumor has it she cast some time magic at her entrance exam, Celestia was so impressed she admitted her to the school as long as she promised not to teach that magic to other ponies.” I stopped in my tracks. “Wait, a pony who knows time magic? What’s the catch? I feel like there’s a catch, or the universe suddenly stopped hating me.” “No catch. Why don’t we head over to her home and get her to help with your little study session?” “You’re awesome Lyra. It’s going to break Dash and Fluttershy’s hearts when I tell them I just bumped you up to my number one mare.” She laughed. “Breaking both their hearts? I could sell tickets to the flank kicking you’d receive.” I chuckled in agreement as I thought about it. Just being able to hear Dash yell at me if I goaded her too far would be a nice break from reliving the same day over and over. If making Lyra my new favorite pony required Dash to get Fluttershy’s help to thoroughly punish me, say back at my place, it was a price I was willing to pay. The smile that had spread across my face went nearly from ear to ear. “Yeah, I’m not brave enough to piss them both off at the same time outside a loop, so I guess we’ll never know.” Now that I had Lyra with me I was unable to just fly over there like an amateur fighter jet pilot to save time. It took five minutes to walk there, instead of a thrilling thirty second climb followed by a thirty second dive. The ability to fly had really spoiled me. Most ponies just ignored us as we walked, content to go around their daily routines. I saw the flower trio at their shop, Pinkie bouncing down the road to make a delivery of baked goods, and a couple of the weather ponies chatting on a rooftop. I realized I hadn’t seen the Cutie Mark Crusaders around in any of my loops yet, which caused a chill to run down my spine. Whatever they were up to, they’d be up to it day after day until I fixed this. I’d have to check on them at some point to ensure they weren’t somehow covered in tree sap and directly responsible for the time loop. Stranger things had happened. Minuette wasn’t in her front yard gardening anymore, so I had to knock on her door as Lyra and I waited on her porch. After a brief wait, she opened the door. “Lyra! How good to see you again. Hi, Dawn. What brings you by?” Minuette asked. “I was telling Dawn that you’ve moved to town,” Lyra explained. “I also told him you were the closest thing we had to an expert on time loops available.” Her smile vanished and she nodded, looking around outside. “Yeah, come in. We should talk privately.” Minuette opened the door and led us both inside. I headed inside and went over to her sofa, taking a seat on the left side. Lyra sat on the right side, and Minuette closed the door. She headed off into the kitchen and came back with a few glasses of water levitating in her magic, setting them down on a coffee table. She took a seat in a chair beside the sofa. “So, as pleased as I am to see you both, you do know that time magic is heavily restricted, right?” Minuette asked. “Yeah. I’m told somepony could screw it up, get trapped in an endless loop, unable to die or ever escape for all eternity. Such a pony would be royally screwed. ” I grinned and pointed a hoof to my chest. “Hi, Minuette, I’m royally screwed.” She tilted her head and looked at Lyra. “Well normally I’d think this was some kind of prank, but Lyra wouldn’t bring you over here for a joke. She knows me well, as well as the consequences for violating the laws surrounding time magic. So, Dawn, have you gone to Twilight or the Princess for help yet?” “Twilight’s out of town, and my letters to Celestia went unanswered. Also there’s some kind of dome over all of Ponyville, preventing me from leaving,” I stated. “I’ve got no idea what the situation on the other side is.” Minuette’s eyes went wide as she gasped. “Oh Celestia… the entire town? That shouldn’t be possible.” “On a scale of one to ten, how screwed are we?” Lyra asked. Minuette responded by levitating a quill and piece of parchment over and began jotting some notes. It took her a few minutes to finish whatever calculations she was doing. “I was always more into theoretical applications, and theoretically if I had Twilight’s skill in magic and the Elements of Harmony, I’m not sure I could fix this. I’d say we’re a solid eleven, Lyra.” “Yay,” I mumbled, before taking a deep breath. “Well, fear not, I’m here to save you. I can remember between loops, and you’ve just been drafted to teach me everything you know, so I can fix it.” Minuette looked between us in confusion. “Celestia hasn’t allowed a pony to take notes on time magic since Starswirl the Bearded a millenia ago. She allowed me to study it if I promised not to share notes or teach it to others.” “Well you’re in luck, I’m a pegasus so I’m incapable of using the magic, and I Pinkie Promise not to tell anypony.” I began to make the motions of the promise with my foreleg. “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” The blue unicorn smiled at me. “Well, I don’t think a temporal paradox would save you from a broken Pinkie Promise, so I guess I can teach you. But what do you plan to do after that?” “Somepony has to carry our knowledge forward as we study this,” I explained. “That’s me. Somepony else has to cast the spell to fix this when we figure out what it is. That’s you.” “I’m on board, of course,” Minuette responded. “I don’t know if I have the power to reverse a spell of this magnitude though. We need to find whoever cast it, learn how, plus carefully study the spell. Maybe if we’re lucky and find the original spell’s caster, we can fix this.” “What if the pony who cast it is outside the dome trapping the town?” I asked. “Then we start with teaching you magic, and pray to Celestia we can form a team of less skilled unicorns to help us fix it. I’ve never managed to time travel further than one minute.” I took a drink of my water and set it back down on the coffee table. “Well you’ve never been trapped for eternity in a time loop before, that’s gotta be pretty motivating right? And just think, if you hadn’t moved to Ponyville you’re probably kicking back shots in a bar in Canterlot right now instead.” “Yay,” Minuette rolled her eyes and let out an exasperated sigh. “If only I hadn’t moved to town to be closer to my marefriend. She did warn me this kind of nonsense happened all the time, but also promised it was no big deal. I figured maybe a bugbear, or the Cutie Mark Crusaders, but not a tear in the fabric of space-time.” “Come on now. You will never forget your first apocalypse in Ponyville,” Lyra stated. “Plus, Pinkie throws the best So You Survived an Apocalypse parties in all of Equestria. I figure for what we’re about to do she’ll get Berry to make us some of the really good fruit punch.” “See?” I said. “Now you’ve got something to look forward to. We’re gonna head over to Rarity’s, teach me everything about magic, and watch me save the whole world. Who knows, maybe they’ll have to promote me to Prince. I promise not to forget you when I’ve got my own kingdom.” Minuette let out a groan and shot Lyra a glance. “Is he always like this?” “Yeah, but I kinda like it,” Lyra replied. “Well, as long as it’s not too distracting. We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Minuette explained. She began levitating books, quills, and scrolls out of several shelves and drawers around her living room. They floated over towards her saddlebags, and she began to make notes on one of the scrolls. “It might even be fascinating to solve such a complicated problem, though sadly only Dawn will remember it. Promise me you’ll give me all the details afterwards?” “Sure thing Minuette,” I answered. “If we invent some awesome new spell, it seems like the least I could do would be to give you a copy. So, are you ready to head to Rarity’s now?” “Sure,” Minuette replied. “Let’s get this study session started.” The bell over the door rang as Minuette, Lyra, and I entered the boutique. Rarity was quick to hurry into the room, probably expecting customers. “Oh, hello everypony. What brings you by?” she asked. “Kumquat,” I stated. I heard Lyra chuckle behind me, while Rarity just stared right at me with an eyebrow raised. “Excuse me?” “Well we’re stuck in a time loop, and we need to commandeer your domicile for altruistic… purposes?” I shrugged and shook my head. “Honestly, I should have prepared some impressive speech to convince you it’s a time loop, and that’s on me. I haven’t had time to workshop it yet to see what works best. You told me to say kumquat and you’d know what it meant, so… kumquat. Kumquat. Kumquat!” I hadn’t seen Rarity this confused before. She kept almost saying something, and looking around as if Dash was going to burst out of a mannequin and shout “got ya!” at any moment. It probably didn’t help that Lyra was still barely holding back a fit of laughter, and I was being myself. Rarity glanced at the blue unicorn, no doubt having heard in passing that Minuette went to Celestia’s school of magic. She assumed Minuette would be a voice of reason. “Minuette, darling, are these two serious or am I about to have to ban somepony from my shop during business hours?” Rarity asked. “They’re serious, I’m afraid,” Minuette stated. “I haven’t fully investigated, but there’s definitely a powerful spell affecting the town, you can detect the change in the leyline if you extend your senses.” She nodded. “Thank you. That won’t be necessary, though. If you vouch for him and somehow he knows… my favorite fruit… then I’m confident he has been here before.” I grinned and walked towards the kitchen. “Favorite fruit, eh? Maybe I can try one, since it’s totally a fruit and not something else.” Rarity continued to ignore me, speaking to Minuette. “If you and Lyra can babysit him for a bit, I’ll get the shop set up. What exactly do you need?” “We need to teach Dawn everything we know about magic, and hope he can stop joking long enough to save Equestria.” Minuette tilted her head to Lyra. “She says he’s good for it.” “He’s good for a lot of things, but I’m worried how much help a pegasus can be when it comes to magic.” Lyra shot me an apologetic glance when she noticed me glaring at her. “No offense.” “Some taken,” I stuck my tongue out at her. “Well, he certainly has a unique point of view,” Rarity offered. “If there is anypony in town who can think outside the box, or perhaps has never been in a box, it is Dawn. He has saved us once before, too.” “Twice.” I pretended to adjust a tie on my neck and lowered my voice. “Mares, I tell ya. I can’t get no respect.” With no further appreciation for my attempts to lighten the mood, Rarity went off to begin getting her home ready. Minuette offered to help get things set up. I went over to make small talk with Lyra. “So, Lyra, you want to come visit Dash and I again after I fix this? You always know the best recreational activities for three consenting adults.” She smiled and nodded. “Sure, but first you’ve got a lot of work ahead of you, Dawn. I’m actually a little surprised you’re not taking this more seriously.” “What can I say? I’m just confident I’ll have this fixed in under a week. Faster if I don’t spend half that week on spa days,” I added. “I think you’re deflecting a little too much with humor. Are you sure you’re okay?” Lyra asked. I thought of giving her the honest answer, but admitting how worried I was wouldn’t be as productive as having a task to focus on. As long as I kept studying, and kept my mind occupied, there was no risk of spiraling down a rabbit hole of negative thinking. “You know me really well. I think even if you can’t remember the loops, you can be my anchor. If I’m ever not okay, you’ll be the first to recognize it if I don’t say anything first.” “No pressure, huh?” When I didn’t respond, she chuckled nervously and said “I’ll do my best.” Before long, Rarity had converted her shop into a small classroom and closed the store for the day. I was seated at a table in a rather uncomfortable chair with several books in front of me. There were two chalkboards in the room, as well as extra seats. Lyra was seated leaning back in hers, reminding me of how I’d sit if I were still human. I mimicked her, leaning back in the chair and trying not to slide out of it. Minuette had chosen to sit like a normal pony, hindquarters firmly planted on the seat. Rarity was drawing something on the chalkboard, though I wasn’t paying much attention. I started to zone out as I recalled Twilight mentioning magic kindergarten. Apparently unicorns had to start learning to control their magic young, and that made me wonder if they had magic puberty. Perhaps if a filly didn’t have their magic under control they could cause some sort of chain reaction. Their magic could surge, hatching a dragon, and granting their future friends cutie marks. Said pony could go on to experiment on a human in their secret basement. They might kidnap somepony in a dream and force said pony to teach them the Dewey Decimal system. Clearly, not paying attention in magic kindergarten could send a talented unicorn down a dark path to depravity. Rarity dragged a hoof down the board, the shriek breaking me out of my daydream. My eyes snapped to the board, and I saw Rarity glaring at me. I wondered how long I’d been lost in thought. “As I was saying Dawn, magic is a force of life and creation. Almost all living beings in Equestria produce magic, a collective energy known as mana. Most creatures have, at the very least, a passive ability to tap into it. For a pegasus, that means the ability to tap into the energies present in the weather. Clouds, winds, storms, and so forth.” I nodded along, pushing the unbidden thoughts of mares in librarian outfits and thick wooly sweaters out of my mind. “How is this useful?” “Because every unicorn filly has to learn this in kindergarten, and you have not yet learned it. I’ll not have you leaving us trapped in this time loop forever because you fell asleep in class,” Rarity chided. Minuette looked up from a small notebook where she was working on a complex series of runes. “There’s more to magic than being something only a unicorn can do. Look at Dash’s rainboom, or Spitfire’s ability to superheat the air and appear as if on fire during stunts. Even a pony without a horn channels magic, and uses it, even if only subconsciously. The more you know about magic, the more prepared you’ll be to use it.” “Trust us on this,” Lyra said. “Besides, you’re going to miss the easy stuff when we move onto thaumaturgy symbols. There’s a reason I majored in music, you know.” “Okay. If you say the basics are important, I believe you.” I lifted my hooves in surrender. “I’m just anxious to finish this course and be promoted to the rank of master.” “Graduate from the course you may, but promoted to the rank of master you are not,” Lyra quipped. We both started giggling, while Minuette just stared at us in confusion. Rarity groaned loudly. “This is no time to repeat Dawn’s outlandish campfire stories about space ninjas.” “Hey!” I interjected. “They’re jedi, and they’re awesome!” “Can we focus? We have limited time,” Minuette said. “I know it may look to you like you’ve got an infinite amount of time, but a spell that uses enough power to affect a whole town is likely highly unstable. I only know what you know, and right now you don’t know how the spell is structured, or if it uses a focus, or well… anything. The sooner we do, the sooner I can offer you some useful information, like whether or not we’re all going to blink out of existence when the spell unexpectedly collapses.” I sighed and nodded my head. “Yeah, I guess that’s a good reason to keep things moving. So, please continue.” Rarity drew three circles around the three ponies on the board, a unicorn, pegasus, and an earth pony. In the middle where they overlapped was an alicorn. “Pegasi can channel magic through their wings, using it to affect the weather. It also enhances their flying and provides them a certain… bounciness… when they crash. Judging by a skilled flier like Rainbow Dash and her history with crashing, this was a necessary evolutionary advantage to pegasi magic.” “Next up are Earth ponies, who channel their magic in many subtle ways. It increases their strength, their skill in alchemy, their ability to heal, growing plants, and raising animals. While they can rarely manifest their magic in flashy ways like a weather pony or a unicorn, they still use magic.” “Unicorns are the most well known magic users,” Rarity droned on. “Thanks to their horns, they are able to directly channel magic, shaping it in their mind to the desired effect. There are several key factors, for example, one's ability to concentrate and focus to shape the spell. One must also believe they are capable of completing the spell. Even the smallest doubt could interfere in the use of a spell. A momentary distraction can disrupt the channels of power or the mental symbols the caster is concentrating on. It may look like a horn just glows and magic happens, but that isn’t how it works.” I was about to flick a small paper football over to Lyra, who was holding up her hooves to make goal posts, but quickly hid it under a hoof when Rarity turned around. Lyra also resumed looking innocent just in time. “Okay,” I said quickly, nodding along. “I get the basics. I’m guessing next you’ll tell me how alicorns fit in? They’re the ones with wings and a horn, right?” Rarity narrowed her eyes, studying me for a moment. She must have decided I’d been paying attention and was only being my usual amount of incorrigible. Rarity turned back to the board and continued the lesson. I let out a sigh once she wasn’t looking at me, sliding the paper football out from under my hoof. “Alicorns have the benefits of all three races, but also a vastly increased ability to draw upon the energy that powers magic. They get stronger as they age and the magic can keep them alive well beyond the lifespan of normal mortals. Occasionally a unicorn like Starswirl or Twilight will be able to match an alicorn’s power, or even ascend, but in almost every case alicorns are in a league of their own. They’ve got all the flaws and beauty of normal ponies, but far more raw power.” “Cool,” I replied. So far the lessons had been pretty boring. I was certain they wouldn’t be teaching me about the races of pony if it wasn’t important, but perhaps I could speed things along to a more valuable topic. “So there’s gotta be some laws of magic or something too, right? ‘Thou shall not allow a pony to come to harm whether through action or inaction’, that sort of stuff?” “Well,” Rarity stated, “the first rule of magic is: do not use it to kill a pony. Technically, any sapient being, but a strong case can be made for self-defense a lot of the time. A hungry changeling may be sapient, but it could kill you as easily as a manticore. Some races like griffons are carnivorous, so the laws on hunting game animals that are merely sentient are relaxed. In general though, since you’re a pony, let’s just say killing is frowned upon,” Rarity explained. I nodded along, muttering loudly. “Killing is bad.” I scribbled it down on a piece of paper. “And what’s Celestia’s stance on kneecaps?" Rarity continued onward, knowing that acknowledging me would only encourage me. “Then there are laws against necromancy, time travel, mind control, forced shape shifting a being into a familiar, or traveling outside our dimension. It’s not really something I think you’ll have to worry about.” Rarity finished writing out the seven laws on the board. “Okay, but didn’t Twilight time travel to warn herself and freak out that one time? Why wasn’t she arrested?” I asked. “She had a pretty epic meltdown from what I heard.” “Ah, the predestination paradox,” Minuette admired. “By trying to warn herself not to worry, she sent herself down a path that caused her to worry. Once she got the spell and realized there had been nothing to worry about, she went back to let herself know, thus creating the very situation she wanted to avoid.” “Celestia and Luna can give out exceptions to some of the laws,” Rarity said. “They approved Twilight’s use of the spell as there were no consequences. They trust her to learn from the experience and use that knowledge responsibly. Starswirl helped write the book on what is and isn’t allowed when it comes to any time-related magic.” “Okay. Most of those laws sound easy not to break. Now can we learn the cool stuff like how to bend a spoon with my mind?” I asked. There was a crack as the chalk in Rarity’s telekinetic grip snapped, and a moment later fell to the ground as a fine white dust. I winced when I saw one of her eyelids twitching. Perhaps Rarity wasn’t taking my constant joking in stride while trying to teach me the fundamentals of magic. She must have noticed the guilt on my face as I shrank back slightly in the chair. “Apologies, Dawn. Magic may be powered by mana, but emotion also has a very large impact in powering or weakening it. I am a bit… frustrated at your cavalier attitude, which disrupted my levitation spell. Strong emotion and spells do not mix.” Rarity took a deep breath to calm herself. “I shall endeavor to continue. After all, we are trapped in this time loop together. For eternity. Unless I am able to teach you how to fix it.” “No pressure,” Minuette added. I looked at all three of them, noticing none of them were smiling. Sure, Lyra had been playing along, perhaps she knew I needed a little outlet for my nervous energy. As I thought about Rarity’s words, it began to dawn on me how serious this was. Everypony was counting on me, and only me, to solve a problem none of them were aware existed. While being a smart ass was endlessly entertaining, I was doing it at their expense. Each day longer it took me to fix this was another day spent in this unknown void, separated from the world. I gulped. “Point taken. I guess it’s time I paid attention then. This is the tenth day you’ve had to explain the races of ponies to me, after all.” Lyra chuckled and I could hear Rarity’s teeth grinding. “Sorry! That was the last joke, Pinkie Promise!” I added. If I broke this promise though, I’m pretty sure Pinkie wouldn’t ever find out on account of the time loop. “We’ve only been in the loop for like a week, and this is the first time you’ve explained this to me.” “Why don’t you do a little reading on the schools of magic while I find some more chalk that hasn’t been turned to dust.” Rarity picked up a book and floated it over to me. “I must admit, though, you are disappointing me, Dawn. I expected you to be able to put the attitude aside in light of the seriousness of the situation. If you won’t do it for me, then do it for Dash.” I winced and kept my mouth shut, knowing that Rarity’s shot below the belt would only lead me to say something I’d regret. She was right, and I knew it. Rarity had always been my one friend who refused to humor me and give into my antics. Naturally, that made me push harder to find and press some of her buttons. Even now, with the entire town trapped in a time loop, I was using it as an opportunity to see just how far I could push her. There was something in the tone of her voice that let me know not to push my luck any further. I nodded and flipped open the book and began reading. I could dial it back for a week or two and give this my full focus. “This shouldn’t take too long to learn.” I glanced at the table of contents and noticed the page count. “Buck me.” I slowly spun around on the small stool I was seated on as my lessons on magic continued. Today, Lyra had decided to go fetch the relevant books from the castle library. I’d almost gone myself just to get out of class for half an hour, but Rarity had been quick to point out the fact that the more I studied, the sooner we’d fix this problem. “So, Dawn, care to recite what we’ve gone over on ley lines so far?” Rarity asked. She often quizzed me to make sure I was paying attention. It was her only way to know if I was retaining information in the current and past loops. Any gap in knowledge would lead to a day spent repeating a topic. “They’re concentrated veins of magic that flow around Equestria,” I recited. I stared up at the ceiling in boredom as the room slowly spun. “They can flow from a place like the Crystal Empire, or the Everfree, carrying different kinds of magic. Castles and towns are often situated near them.” Minuette’s horn lit up and my chair stopped rotating as a matching glow surrounded it. “Not bad, how many weeks have you been at this?” “Uh, like two?” I replied. “Should I have learned this stuff more quickly?” “Faster would be better,” Rarity retorted. “However, despite appearances of not paying attention, you seem to have a very good memory.” “It beats cellular biology, or half the electives I had to take to get a nursing degree. Go ahead, ask me to name all the facial nerves.” “Perhaps the type of ley lines in Ponyville would be a bit more relevant,” Rarity interjected. “The main ley line comes from the Everfree, carrying wild magic, and the Tree of Harmony, which grew the lovely tree shaped castle. It is a source of harmony, a type of magic directly opposed to chaos magic.” I flipped open one of the books to a small diagram of unicorns gathered around an etched circle. “Ley lines are most often used to fuel ritual magic. By tapping into them, a unicorn isn’t limited to their own ability to draw on magic. Of course, one small mistake and you’ll have it all explode in your face. I imagine the resulting disintegration would be unpleasant.” “Which explains why unicorns often use a focus,” I added. “Be it a staff, spell scrolls, or another pony. Anything that allows the spellcaster to split the effort of the spell means they have more concentration to devote to the ritual, and controlling the magic.” Rarity smiled, and nodded in approval. “I’m impressed by your progress. When Lyra gets back, we’ll move onto the advanced topics. You might just pull this off after all.” I held a piece of chalk in my hoof, drawing intricate symbols that reminded me a little of an Asian language. Today I was writing the sets of magic runes over and over on the chalkboards. This must have been the tenth time today I’d been tracing them out. It was the seventh day in a row I’d spent repeating and memorizing symbols. Learning a new language is hard. Learning one that’s literally magic, and at an accelerated pace, was exhausting. I’d taken to drinking several cups of coffee each morning just to push myself harder to learn as fast as possible. When writing down spells, unicorns tended to use the symbols instead of written words. They could convey more information this way in less space. When trying to cast a complicated spell, it helped if you had just one page and not a small booklet to leaf through. Knowing the basic building blocks was important. By combining the symbols for protection and fire together correctly, you make a pony fireproof. Of course, if I didn’t learn all of them correctly, I wouldn’t be able to read them correctly. If I found the spell that trapped us here but misread the symbols, I’d effectively send us down the wrong path for weeks. I erased one of the symbols I was drawing, and drew it again. It was important I got this perfect, and not let the pressure get to me. I took a step back and looked at the symbols. “Fire, water, lightning, evocation, thaumaturgy, illusion…” I scribbled one more down for ‘necromancy’. “I think I completed another set. Do they really teach every unicorn a whole language of runes?” “Yes,” Rarity responded. She didn’t look up from her sewing machine. I think sewing helped her focus and keep herself busy. “Though Minuette has added some of the less common symbols that aren’t taught in school.” “So you know these all too, Harpy?” I asked Lyra. “Harpy?” She responded, giving me a confused look. “Been trying out some new nicknames, no good?” “Pass.” She rolled her eyes. “And yeah. It’s a bit easier for unicorns to memorize them. The runes generally are the same shape as the channels of magic when we cast a spell. It’s sort of like a cheat sheet: if I think of lightning and charge my horn, I can see it in my mind’s eye.” “Ah,” I sighed. “So unicorns are cheating. I’ve spent like a week learning an entire language, and you can just close your eyes and poof! Magic runes.” Minuette came over and was examining the board. She’d taken a piece of red chalk and began making corrections in a few places, but I had gotten a lot better at memorizing the runes. “Pretty good, there’s still room for improvement though.” “Do we have to?” I groaned as I watched her strike through another symbol completely, then redraw it. “If you are able to locate a spell scroll, and aren’t fluent in these symbols, then you can’t read it. If you can’t read it, you can’t fix it.” Minuette reached the end of the chalkboard and fixed one of the last symbols. I ground my teeth for a minute while I thought of what to say that wouldn’t sound overly aggressive. “Do you know how difficult it is to learn a language in a week? I can just bring you the scroll, and have you read it. This is a waste of time if I can’t actually cast magic.” Minuette smiled and nodded. I had to hand it to her, she had a lot more patience than I did. “I understand your frustration, but trust me that this will be valuable. You could easily close your eyes, channel magic, and view these symbols in your mind if you wanted to.” She tapped on the symbol for lightning on the board. “Like lightning, with your pegasi magic you could channel the power, and shape it with this rune.” I rolled my eyes and huffed. “Dash already showed me how to do that, and you know the best part? It just works. I find a cloud, touch it, and I think ‘hey cloud, shoot some lightning’ and bam! Lightning. At least, it works as long as I’m outdoors. I doubt I’ll be zapping anypony indoors.” “Subconsciously, you’re channeling the magic. Pegasi excel at controlling certain elements related to weather; it’s so deeply intertwined with their magic and special talents that they don’t have to visualize it. However, at some level, this is what you're thinking without realizing it,” Minuette explained. She tapped on the lightning rune. “Well do I pass or am I going to have to spend more loops learning these?” I looked at the board where about one out of five symbols had been corrected in red. “Ugh, I got Earth, Wind and Fire wrong?” I chuckled to myself, saying in a melodic voice “It must be the twenty-first night of September.” “I think you should practice some more,” Rarity offered, ignoring my reference. “There is still time today to get them all right.” “Damn it! I need to do better than this! I didn’t even get the lightning symbol correct.” I huffed and shook my head before continuing to rant. “I’m going to have to repeat this tomorrow, and we still haven’t even begun to figure out what the problem is. I’m in remedial magic class and it’s been over a month!” I complained, stomping back over to the board. The low boil of frustration I’d been feeling throughout the week, trying to learn an entire language of magic, began to pour out. “This is like, Chinese times a thousand! I’m learning an entire set of the basic symbols and there’s probably hundreds more to go, plus all the combinations and variations of them! Oh, sure, let’s teach Dawn how to turn lead to gold or transform somepony into a breezie! It’s as easy as one, two, three, a, b, c!” I shouted. “Dawn, please calm down,” Rarity said. Her voice was perfectly calm, her tone unwavering. “Calm?” I let out a manic laugh. “I’ve got to save Equestria by myself, learn this dumbass language,” I slammed a hoof on the board. “Apparently I wasn’t even doing the weather right because this whole time I was supposed to be picturing this symbol for lightning that looks like a ‘Z’ got into a three-way with a ‘J’ and a ‘P’!” “Dawn, please,” Lyra called. “Listen to me,” Minuette said, her voice carrying a hint of command. “You need to take a deep breath. Hold for five seconds, and exhale.” I turned to insult her, except she was no longer standing near me. Minuette had backed away, Rarity had stepped away from her sewing machine, and Lyra was looking at me with trepidation. Had I been yelling that loudly at them? There was an itching in my wings, and I realized I could still see the symbol for lightning. I wasn’t looking at the board anymore, but I just knew the symbol was there. I could see it, almost up and behind my eyes, in my mind. It was crackling with little bolts of energy. I realized I could hear the crackling, and that my wings were stretched out. “Dawn?” Minuette asked. “Take that deep breath.” “What’s going on?” I responded. My voice had quieted down, but I was starting to panic. Small arcs of electricity tingled between my primary feathers. “How am I channeling weather magic indoors?” “Are you picturing the symbol?” Minuette took a step closer to me, smiling to try and ease my mind. “Yes.” “Well, stop.” “I would if I knew how!” I cried out, a small crack of thunder sounding as I flapped my wings. “I’m sorta on auto-pilot here!” “We need to ground out his magic,” Minuette observed. “How? He doesn’t have a horn.” Rarity asked. “Should I try and shoot lightning at something?” I looked around the room for something inexpensive looking. “Just relax and let it naturally wear off,” Minuette said. I could feel my heart racing and the pressure of the magic was building. “I don’t think it’s working—” “It’ll be okay, Dawn,” Lyra interrupted. She had snuck up and began to hug me. I instantly felt all the electricity flow out of me and into her. “Lyra!” I yelled, feeling the jolt of energy leave me. I turned to look at her, but had to close my eyes. Her horn was glowing as brightly as the sunrise. After a brief flash, the magic had all dissipated. It had flowed out of me, with Lyra’s own horn and magic acting as the lightning rod. She continued to hold me for a moment until she was sure I had calmed down. “Risky, but effective,” Minuette said. She walked over, and soon Rarity joined her. The three unicorns stood right in front of me now. “Lyra, you could have gotten hurt! Why’d you do that?” I asked. She shrugged. “You’re not the first pony to have a magic surge, though you’re the first pegasus I’ve seen have one.” “Wait, so that was the kind of magic surge unicorn fillies have all the time?” “Basically,” Rarity said. “Sweetie has had a few. They are fueled by strong emotion, which overrides your control of the magic. It can basically trap the magic with no way out until it finds the first spell it can and, bam. Magic surge.” I nodded my head, making sense of the things I’d learned and the experience I’d just had. My wings were still tingling slightly, and I stretched them out to make sure they were okay. They weren’t even sore. They seemed to have a faint glow to them that faded slowly to nothing. “So, weather magic works through the wings. I drew magic in through them. I got emotional, losing control. I was picturing that rune for lightning, and then the magic had no way out except as lightning?” “Yep!” Minuette said excitedly. “You’re a quick study. I was trying to explain to you that knowing these symbols, and being able to draw in magic through your wings, would allow you to cast certain spells. Heck, I could probably teach Applejack a simple cantrip or two with enough time.” “Wait.” I kept my wings folded and pictured the lightning symbol. I spread my wings slowly, watching in my mind’s eye as sparks of energy flowed across it. I closed my wings before anything bad could happen, realizing I’d just had some sort of breakthrough. “This is awesome! So I can cast magic now?” “Well, weather magic at least,” Minuette explained. “It is the one area pegasi are gifted in. Unfortunately, like you pointed out earlier, it just sort of ‘happens’, so most pegasi never give it a second thought or try to improve their control.” I laughed out loud and fluttered my wings, feeling the energy flow into them as I imagined the symbol for ice. The air seemed to get a bit chillier. “This is awesome! I can cast spells. So you’re saying I’ll be able to teleport?” “No, Dawn,” Lyra replied. “We’re saying when you’re ready, you won’t need to.” I let out a loud ‘squee’ sound and hugged Lyra, and then let go. “You just gave me goosebumps! Best reference ever!” I looked over to Rarity and Minuette, who were both staring at me blankly. “Oh come on! The Matrix? I know I’ve told that story several times.” I looked at them again. Rarity shrugged. “Sorry, Dawn, I don’t remember that campfire story.” I groaned and looked at Lyra. “At least somepony other than Dash has good taste in stories. You just made my time loop!” “Thanks, Dawn. I’m just glad you’ve calmed down. You had me worried,” Lyra said. Her hair was still standing up a bit from all the electricity that had recently flown through it. “Yeah, I guess I was just getting a bit frustrated is all.” I smiled and gave her a quick hoof bump. “Thanks, Lyra, for being here for me. If I get frustrated again, I’ll try to say something sooner.” I went back over to the chalkboard and glanced over the symbols again as I began erasing them. My heart was still racing from the adrenaline as I nearly turned into a pony tesla-coil. It had renewed my sense of purpose and shaken me out of the funk I’d started to go into. “So, you’re ready to try again?” Minuette asked. “Yep. I’ve got my second wind, and all it took was ten thousand volts,” I replied. “I’m going to ace it this time and we’re going to move on to the advanced stuff.” I’m not sure how many weeks have gone by since that first session. Once I got past the initial hurdle, some of this magic theory stuff was actually pretty interesting. I still had to wake up every morning, fetch Minuette and Lyra, then head to Rarity’s to study. Convincing them that they were in a time loop had become routine. For Lyra, I could pretty much say anything. Perhaps she had fun humoring me since I was the mythological human she’d been hoping her whole life to meet. For Minuette, just the fact I knew all sorts of stuff about time magic was persuasive enough. We’d only exchanged pleasantries before the loop, and nothing says ‘master of time and space’ like casually dropping one of Minuette’s own theorems on her. As for Rarity, convincing her had gotten too easy. My record was fourteen words to convince her we were in a time loop. So most days, I chose to mess with her instead. I knew she’d never remember, and it was the only real form of entertainment I had. Sometimes I’d say every word that rhymes with Kumquat. Other times I’d mention a dress I couldn’t possibly have known she was working on. One time I nearly had her convinced Sweetie Belle was our child, displaced in the time stream, and that I’d come from the future to save Ponyville. Lyra couldn’t hold in her laughter, unfortunately, and ruined that loop. Once I’d gathered my impromptu magic tutors and moral support, we’d make a quick lesson plan for the day. One of them would head to the castle to fetch whatever books were relevant for the day’s lesson. Occasionally I’d go by the castle just to say hi to Spike and grab the books myself. After that, I’d be quizzed by Minuette to assess my current knowledge level. Today we were memorizing the most advanced magic rune combinations. Each combined shape could be visualized to help the unicorn channel magic in a specific way. At this point, combining three to four symbols at once was a piece of cake. I took the chalk in my hoof and began drawing a modification to the symbol for time. “I know this is the symbol for time, but I’m telling you when combined with this symbol for alchemy, and this symbol for thaumaturgy, you can bypass the equivalent exchange of energy. Suddenly, instead of a one to one ratio, with the proper focus, you can get tenfold the power for the spell. We went over this all yesterday,” I explained. Rarity and Lyra were seated at the table, snacking on some bon bon’s we’d brought to class today. Minuette was next to the chalkboard, angrily drawing on the other half. “But it can’t work that way due to conservation of energy, the energy has to come from somewhere.” “You said that yesterday too, but that’s the whole point of ritual magic. By inscribing a spell on a scroll, or drawing sigils on the floor, the caster has to spend less of their concentration on casting the spell. Combined with other unicorns to draw extra power, or a focus capable of drawing its own power, one unicorn can suddenly cast a spell that might take a few alicorns to pull off.” “Are you following any of this?” Lyra asked Rarity. “Not really,” Rarity whispered back. Minuette opened her mouth to protest, before closing it. Then she nodded. “Alright, so for a spell of this magnitude, either it’s being cast by at least one alicorn, or it’s using some combination of a ritual and a focus. Now we just need to find and study them to figure it out.” “Yeah, exactly. So I should probably start looking around town again to try and find it,” I said. “I’m the only one who can search the town and remember it.” “We still haven’t covered the rest of the intermediate or advanced topics,” Minuette replied. “If you damage the components being used for this spell, it may eliminate our chance of reversing it.” “Well how much longer do we need to finish bringing me up to speed then? You always say I’ve barely scratched the surface, but I feel like I’ve come incredibly far.” “Celestia’s school took years. We could probably condense that down to—” Minuette paused and looked up at the ceiling, eyes flicking back and forth as she did the mental math. “Six months,” Minuette answered. “I hope we can do it a little quicker than that. For months I’ve been waking up to the same damn song on the radio, and the only thing for breakfast in my kitchen is one flavor of oatmeal. My neighbor keeps going on about Mondays when it’s clearly Tuesday.” I began to draw a runic symbol on the chalkboard, twisting it into a jagged looking smiley face. “If I don’t learn how to fix this soon, just think what could happen. I might go crazy, cuckoo, insane! I’d give up, and declare Ponyville my timeless harem.” Rarity chuckled loud enough to get my attention. “Hey, quiet in the peanut gallery,” I frowned. “I could totally pick up every mare in town in a single day with enough loops to practice. You’d all be putty in my hooves!” “I bet you could, tiger.” Lyra winked at me, smirking. “So how about this,” Minuette interrupted. “Before you trap us all in a school colt’s fantasy for eternity, we’ll do one more lesson plan. We’ll study ritual magic, scroll making, multi-unicorn spells, and creating a focus to channel magic. That’ll take a few weeks, then you can try and hunt down said objects without any undue risk of accidentally destroying them. Plus, it’ll help you know what to look for.” I nodded and sighed. “Alright, I guess a few more weeks won’t hurt.” I wish I could say the rest of that day studying was as productive as the others. However, I never quite got that harem fantasy out of my head.