Bastion followed Starlight to the training area once breakfast was done. Live Wire and Doldrum went in the other direction, towards another camp site outside the little lake valley.
“So what are we doing today?” he asked when they reached the firing range.
“Well, I was thinking what sort of magic might suit you. You’re a big thinker, right? Strategise, plan ahead, win the fight before it starts?”
He blushed. “Umm, yes, Ma’am. I don’t think there’s any magic that helps for that, though.”
Starlight grinned. “I was thinking this might.”
Then she vanished.
Bastion blinked and looked around. He didn’t hear a teleportation, no snap crackle pop or anything. “Starlight?”
He walked over to where she’d been standing, perking his ears.
“Gotcha.”
He jumped and went into firing position right away, horn alight. Starlight had somehow made her way behind him. “W-what was that?”
“Cloaking spell,” she explained. “Depending on how good you are, you can conceal things from sight, make them soundless, even odourless. That particular one is an old favourite of Star Swirl the Bearded, and according to what I’ve heard from the higher-ups in academia… it’s a spell even changelings haven’t worked around. So, in theory, this would hide you from enemy changelings, even from Chrysalis herself, if you ever needed to. It’s a good way to set up an ambush, get the drop on someone, but most importantly: it lets you get out of the fight, at least for a while. It gives you time to think, which is what a boy like you needs, right?”
“Time to think.” He nodded excitedly. “Yes, please, that’d be perfect, how do you do that?”
“First you clear your mind. Then you start off by picturing a light, white mist...”
Live Wire was limbering up and swinging his arms around as everyone got into position. “Okay. Tug of war reigning champions, ready to go. Who’s up first?”
Sunburst came by with a clipboard in his magic. “Stormy Night and Dark Moon? You’re up against these two.”
The two boys were apparently facing off against a pair of Pegasus fillies. One was a greyish white all over, with a yellow streak of lightning in both her mane and tail. The other was more of a deep dark blue, but both of them had clearly been reading the Wonderbolt magazines when asking their barber for a manecut.
Doldrum took a deep breath in and stood up. He liked to meditate before a match, Live Wire knew, mostly to make sure he had his magic nice and packed, as if it was really needed at this point.
It also helped his friend stay calm, which was definitely needed in situations like this. Not at first, obviously, but after a while things tended to escalate.
“Great,” the blue girl said. Live Wire presumed this was Dark Moon judging from the crescent cutie mark. “We get to go up against the camp’s biggest blowhards.”
Doldrum went to the rope, picked it up, and waited for Live Wire and the girls to do the same. “I don’t waste my breath bragging. You shouldn’t waste yours with girly gossip.”
“Hey, we are not gossips!” the grey girl, Stormy Night, replied. “Everyone knows you’re a no-good cheater.”
“Girls,” Sage said. “Don’t go accusing ponies of something they didn’t do. Doldrum doesn’t cheat, and neither does Live Wire. Now, are you going to play or are you giving up before you start?”
The girls both grabbed the rope. “We’ll show’em.”
Live Wire looked back. The other teams were already squaring off. With a shrug, he grabbed his end of the rope and waited for the signal.
“Everyone ready?!” Sage called out. “Three, two, one, go!”
Live Wire dug his hooves in on a reflex as the girls pulled with all their might. His muscles tensed, his horn sparked.
No, no, hold it in. No magic.
His whole body seemed to clench, rigid as a statue.
“Is that all you’ve got?” Doldrum asked.
For a moment, Live Wire felt hurt. Then he realised the question was aimed at the now huffing and puffing girls. They were dragging their hooves into the dirt, fruitlessly trying to get the boys to move even an inch.
There was no reply.
“Don’t call me a cheater just because you’re weak.”
Live Wire felt the tension in the rope grow, and he took a step back. Digging in again, he gained a step on the girls. Then another, then another.
Before long, the two had dragged their opponents over the middle line.
The fillies panted.
“Assault and Battery take the win,” Sage said. Sunburst wrote down the result.
“How is that fair? That’s like trying to pull an anvil!” Stormy Night objected.
Live Wire felt his bunkmate’s eyes twitch, even if he didn’t see it.
“Stronger ponies are gonna win at this, girls. That’s how the game works. Doldrum is a strong pony, so he won.”
Live Wire snickered. “Sure, he won.”
Doldrum smiled, a little crack in his bashful exterior. “It’s weird how no one ever thinks you’re the one beating them.”
“Better to be invisible than invincible, right?” Live Wire made a show of stretching his neck and flicking his limbs to warm up for the next round.
“Spoken like a true wizard,” Sage said.
The girls took their loss with a complete lack of dignity, not bothering to shake the hooves of the winners.
“Guess that’s what our afternoon is gonna be like,” Live Wire said. “You okay?”
Doldrum pouted again, ears down. “I just hope the rest are a little more quiet when they lose, is all.”
It took a few tries, but the changeling got it. He was blinking in and out of plain sight like a pro, and ahead of schedule, even.
“Great,” Starlight said. “That’s a basic cloaking spell. That can get you out of a lot of bad situations.”
“What’s next?” the boy asked.
“We’ll try some metamagic on it. Quicken first, then twinning, which is kind of like extending.”
Bastion blinked. “You can twin a cloaking spell?”
“Of course. What’s the point of making yourself invisible if you’re only going to abandon your allies with it? Now, there are two ways to extend a cloaking spell: basic twinning and a blanket spell. One’s for getting a friend out of trouble and sneaking around in pairs, the other is a little more crude, not that good for moving around, but great for hiding in plain sight and getting the drop on someone. But you’re going to want to quicken it first: a fast opponent can catch you before the cloak’s finished, and that’s not a fun thing to have happen.”
Bastion braced himself. “Of course. What do I do?”
“I’m going to toss a mild beam at you, a little powder conjuration. That’s what an opponent will do if they know you can cloak: that’s how you work around it. Your job will be to cloak before it hits, and roll far enough out of the way to stay hidden. Once you get that down, we’ll see about letting you do ambush attacks with some spells.”
“Okay. I still don’t know that many spells, though. Not to attack with.”
“We have artifacts in stock,” Starlight replied with a smile. “That’ll do just fine for this.”
Round 2 had a Unicorn on both sides. Live Wire kept his eyes on him, and it only took a few seconds for him to notice the glowing horn. “Hey! No magic allowed!” he called out.
“He’s right, keep that horn under control,” Sage said.
The Unicorn grumbled. “Like you’re not cheating with your souped-up buddy over there.”
“Don’t call me a cheater,” Doldrum said, irritated.
“Don’t worry,” said the winged colt on the other side. “I’ve seen how they do this in Ponyville.”
The Pegasus colt then beat his wings in a powerful motion and took off straight up with the rope his grasp.
“Well, that’s just dumb. You can’t beat somepony at tug of war by flying up.” Live Wire looked over to Doldrum.
“On three?” he asked.
“One, two, three!”
With a firm and violent yank, they dragged the Pegasus down. He ended up taking a mo!uthful of dirt for his troubles, and the Unicorn he was with winced.
“You don’t have any grip in the air,” Doldrum said. “And I’m pretty sure flying is against the rules anyway.”
Sage snorted. “It is. That’s a loss and a disqualification, you two. Tree Hugger will not be happy when she hears about this.”
“Whatever,” said the Pegasus. “Not like you’d have won in a fair fight.”
“Excuse me?” Doldrum hissed.
“Hey, easy, easy,” Live Wire quickly went to stand in between him and the retreating foals. “They’re just sore losers. No need to let that get to you. Who cares what they think?”
Doldrum gulped. His hide was starting to show those telltale twitches of his again. “No, I guess you’re right.”
“Two more rounds to go. We can do this. Don’t let them bait you into getting disqualified.”
The Pegasus took in a deep breath and smiled. “I won’t. I’m okay. I’m calm. And we’re gonna win, fair and square.”
A quick trip to the supply closet, and Starlight had some trinkets for Bastion to try. “There we go. Little Lightning Ring to throw sparks with, Wind Belt, and the Ice Amulet. Let’s start with the rings first.”
“Great. How do I use these?”
“You attune to them first, that shouldn’t take long. Just reach out with your senses, feel out the rings, feel out the magic, you’ll know when it’s working.”
Bastion closed his eyes and did just that. He felt out the weight of the things, the feel of them against his skin. An electric thrill went through him, and suddenly he knew. He knew how to use these things, at least on a basic level. It felt like looking into a pond, and only seeing the fish in the shallow end, knowing larger ones dwelled at the bottom.
He opened his eyes, flexed, and focused on the rings. He felt something hunger for his magic, so he fed it into the things, then let go. A simple, but firm lightningbolt was the result, a little bit off-center but a good hit on the training dummy’s shoulder regardless.
“Wow.” He thought for a moment. “Why don’t the Royal Guards use these?”
“They probably do, just not the Royal Guards you’ve seen. To tell you the truth, I’m not entirely sure why the normal ones don’t use it more myself.”
Bastion tried another shot, with the Ice Amulet this time. He could only produce a soft snowball, but a hit was still a hit. “I think I’ve got it.”
“Good. Now cloak up and try to hold your invisibility while you fire.”
Now came the tricky part. He cloaked himself, as he had been doing before.
“Now hold, hold, and fire!”
The lightningbolt flew way off, but the shot was decent enough, and the cloak didn’t drop.
“There, see? Told you you could do it,” Starlight said. “Keep practising and once you get a proper spell under your belt, you’ll be able to do it in ambush, too.”
He blushed. “Right, training wheels. I guess that works. This isn’t what Doldrum uses, is it?”
“No, his weapons are his own, these are camp property.”
Bastion mulled it over.
Starlight noticed. “Why, are you interested in artifact magic?”
“Not especially. They’re nice, but I don’t think they’re what I really want.”
“You don’t know unless you try it, I guess. Let’s take a little break for now, I’m going to go check on Assault and Battery, see how they’re doing. The tournament should be wrapping up right about now.”
The final round of the competition was about to start. Doldrum had worked up a mild sweat by now, and Live Wire was starting to twitch. Still, they were both eager for the last bout.
“One more round and we’ve got it in the bag,” Live Wire said.
“Yeah,” Doldrum droned. “Great.”
Live Wire sighed. His friend had gotten at least one remark or accusation thrown his way every single round so far. It was starting to get a little ridiculous.
“Brick Wall and Ironclad, you’re up,” Sunburst said. “You’re the only two who’ve gone undefeated, so this one’s for the title.”
Live Wire could see why. Brick Wall was an orange colt with a blonde mane and tail who was about as bulky as Doldrum, though lacking the tautness in the hide. Whoever had named him knew how he was going to turn out, cutie mark fitting the name and everything. Ironclad was more blackish, with a greyish mane and tail, and a weird yellow helmet thing for a cutie mark, nothing Live Wire recognised.
They were both bulky-looking, they were both undefeated.
They were both Earth ponies.
“This shouldn’t take long,” Ironclad started.
“You can’t beat Earth pony strength,” Brick Wall added.
Doldrum tilted his head. “What makes you think we haven’t beaten Earth pony strength before?”
“Don’t let them distract you,” Ironclad said. “Everyone knows Earth ponies are the best at raw power. Even these two can’t match that.”
Live Wire dug his hooves in as he grabbed the rope. “Untrained, maybe not. But in case you hadn’t noticed...”
Doldrum smiled. “We’re a little higher level than most ponies. And you might be Earth ponies, but you’re still low-level Earth ponies.”
The four all grabbed their ends of the rope. Sunburst rolled his eyes and looked around to see if everyone else was ready.
“On your marks, get set, pull!”
Doldrum started stepping back, Live Wire kept the tension on the rope up. Creaking and groaning filled the air as step by humiliating step, the two Earth ponies were pulled over the line.
“Guess that settles that, then,” Sunburst said. “Assault and Battery defend their title.”
“Cheater,” the Earth ponies muttered as they went back to the rest.
Doldrum snorted and stifled a growl. “If I have to hear that one more time…”
“You won’t,” Sage interrupted. “You won. The game’s over. Come on, I’m sure Bastion will want to hear all about this.”
Starlight arrived to find a distinct lack of rope-pulling. “All done?”
“All done,” Sunburst replied. “How’s the tutoring going?”
“It went fine. Bastion managed to learn a cloaking spell, he can quicken it, twin it, even do a blanket and an artifact shot without dropping it.”
“Really? I’ll want to see that.”
“Likewise,” Sage added. “Good job, Starlight.”
“How are things here?”
Sunburst gestured to the colts behind him. “Doldrum and Live Wire won, as you might expect.”
Doldrum was drinking some apple juice, alone. He looked pouty, though, sad, even.
“And why is Doldrum…”
“It’s nothing,” Sage said. “Other campers getting under his skin.”
When the campers had finished their little trek back to the lakeside, Assault and Battery arrived to find Bastion doing some more target practice with the trinkets.
Bastion’s ears perked when he noticed them arriving. “Hey, guys. Look, I think I’ve got the aiming down now.” He fired off a ball of lightning and a snowball in quick succession, before cloaking and repeating.
Doldrum didn’t look too impressed. “Oh. You’re using camp’s rings? Be careful, there’s one with a dent in it, that one flies everything too far to the right.”
Bastion uncloaked and took off the rings. “I probably won’t need them soon, anyway. So how’d it go?”
“We creamed’em,” Live Wire said.
“Yeah. We won,” Doldrum added. “It was fun. We’re strongest, everypony knows it.”
“And we’ve got someone who cast invisibility now,” Starlight said, smiling proudly at the changeling.
“On me and a friend,” Bastion added.
That got a smile out of the Pegasus. “Great. That’ll come in handy tomorrow for the big game.”
Bastion chuckled. “Well, I mean, I’m probably not going to use that?”
“Why not?”
“It wouldn’t be fair to the other campers.”
Doldrum’s jaw clenched. “Oh. Right.”
“I mean, it’s hardly a fair fight if anyone tries to go against you as it is, I’m not going to make that even worse by making you invisible.”
Doldrum’s expression shifted back to its usual neutral look. “Of course not. Gotta fight fair.”
Sage and Sunburst were busy discussing something, but they finally noticed the friction. She waited until the other boys were out of earshot to speak up.
Starlight looked on as the boy walked past her. “Are you sure he’s okay?”
“He’s fine,” Sage said. “For now. Might want to talk to him a bit, see if he doesn’t mention anything you know more about than we do. Like I said, there’s been some debate about him, a second and third opinion wouldn’t be a bad idea, necessarily.”
The boys came back out, smelling like Wonderbolts. Granted, they were a little young to be needing deodorant, but better safe than sorry.
She curled her nose. “Yeah, after lunch, once the smell wears off, maybe.”
Lunch was a quiet affair after the contest, and something told Starlight that would probably be the case for every contest going forward. She didn’t follow Doldrum out during breaktime immediately, preferring to keep an eye on the lakeside just in case anything happened with the swimmers or flyers.
After a while, though, she went looking for him, and found him sitting under a tree. His ears were flicking this way and that, his eyes were mostly closed, but he kept opening them every few second and sighing.
“Trying to meditate?” she asked.
He nodded.
“Mind if I join you?”
He shrugged.
She went to sit next to him and crossed her legs. “So, umm, about that contest. I heard some ponies called you names. Do you want to talk about that? I mean, I asked Sage, and he said it was nothing. Was it nothing?”
“Yes. It always happens. They call me a cheater, because I’m stronger than everyone.” He shrugged again, eyes closed. “So I just kinda got used to it after a while. Doesn’t make it any more fun, though.”
That sounded simple enough. “Have you considered that maybe ponies would stop doing that if you held back a little?”
“Yes.”
“Do you think maybe you should hold back?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t want ponies like that to like me. Ponies like that aren’t my friends, and they never will be.”
That calm, hushed response sent shivers down her spine. “So if Bastion asked you to, you wouldn’t do it?”
“No. I only listen to grown-ups who tell me to.”
“So if I did, then?” she suggested.
He waited a few seconds to reply. “I’d do it. But I wouldn’t like it.”
That was a clear signal he meant he wouldn’t like her. “Okay. I won’t ask you to, then. But maybe see things from Bastion’s perspective? You could make more friends that way?”
The boy let out a quick gust through his nostrils. “It doesn’t matter how he sees it: I’m the one doing it, and he’s not me. And I can’t make friends like that. They wouldn’t be friends.”
“They might be if you made artifacts for them to use?”
“I can’t.”
“Because you’re still not pure enough?”
He opened his eyes and looked at her then. “You know about that?”
“Sage told me you’re into Stormcrafter magic. I’m not too familiar with it, but I know the basic rules: you work with your own energy, your own magic. You refine your own power so you can infuse that power into something else, and amplify it. If you think you can’t make artifacts for other ponies, then that can only mean you don’t think you’re pure enough.”
She’d managed to get him to smile, if only for a moment. “That, too. But they wouldn’t be friends, either. They’d just want me for what I can give them. They don’t want me, they just want any strong pony, or any crafty pony.”
“You mean they wouldn’t. Past tense.”
“What?”
Starlight gestured with a hoof. “You said they wouldn’t be friends, in the past, or conditional, but then you said they don’t want you, which would mean they don’t want you now. Are ponies pressuring you into anything?”
He nodded. “Back home. Before I started stormcrafting, nopony liked me. Nopony cared. Everyone was on their own team, teachers would let them get away with anything, I couldn’t fight back. Now that I’m stronger, they all want me on their team.”
Standard jock country fare, as far as Starlight knew it. “To craft?”
“To fight, to wrestle, to be a goalie. No one cares what I want. So why should I care what they want? They never fought fair when I was the weak one, why should I?”
She leaned back and sighed.
It’s always the same thing, isn’t it?
Sunburst, Alherda, now this kid?
It always circles back.
“Yeah. I can understand that, I guess. There’s a lot of inequality in ponies. But you’re one of the ponies with the skills to help fix that. Artifacts let Earth ponies and Pegasi use magic just like Unicorns do.”
“No, they don’t. It’s nothing compared to Unicorn magic,” he argued.
“It’s closer than you might think. But, if you do think your magic isn’t pure enough, you shouldn’t force it, obviously. Just think about it for a little while.”
“What would you do?” he asked. “If I was on your team, I mean. If you were my coach, what would you do?”
“I was thinking maybe to help out with that purity issue, but judging from your posture and your breathing rhythm, you seem to have that down pat. It’s going to take time and practice, is all. The only thing left is helping you master more of your artifacts.”
“I think right now I’ve mastered all of the ones I have.”
“Have you, though? Have you really?”
He pouted, thinking.
“Think about it. We’ll get to that soon. In the meantime, you don’t want to be pressured into making anything or doing anything for other ponies, I understand that. Do you understand you shouldn’t pressure Bastion into using his new tricks?”
“I don’t have to. If he wants to win, other ponies will make him. If he doesn’t, then he doesn’t care about winning, and I’ll just have to do it on my own.”
“You’re going to be on his team, like it or not. Just because he’s a changeling-”
“That has nothing to do with it,” he said, wiping his eyes. “And that’s not fair. I don’t care if he’s a changeling or a pony or a griffon. He wants to hold back, fine. I’ll let him. But then he doesn’t get to blame me when he loses, either. Does that sound fair?”
She nodded. “Yes, perfectly fair. Sorry to disturb your meditation. I’ll make it up to you.”
“How?”
With a thought, she conjured up a pink bubble of energy around them both. “Silence bubble. You can sit right here, perfectly quiet, I’ll even silence myself. You go nice and deep and get your practice in, no distractions.”
Finally, he gave her a genuine smile, before closing his eyes again. “Thank you.”
Starlight finally saw her chance to talk to Sunburst once the boys were in bed and the Ogres and Oubliettes session was about to start.
You have him alone again, Starlight. Make it count this time.
“So, Bastion can turn invisible now?” Sunburst asked.
Or just talk about your day like a normal pony would. That might end up working in the long run.
“Yup. I cleared it with Sage beforehoof.”
“I’m sure you did. Good job on teaching him the advanced applications, too, that’ll help out a lot for what I’ve got planned.”
“Thanks. Our Assault and Battery duo seemed to enjoy themselves today, too, mostly.”
Sunburst nodded. “Yeah. I saw you talk to Doldrum when he was off meditating. Was he upset?”
“Kinda. But we talked, and I think I got through to him, sort of.” She thought for a moment. “Hopefully. It’s hard to tell with that one. He’s technically very proficient, though: I’ve seen professors in Canterlot who couldn’t do that bellows breathing technique like he does.”
Sunburst chuckled and stopped as the cabin came into view. “He’s got a knack for that kind of thing.”
“You don’t think he’ll get in trouble tomorrow, do you? With Bastion on his team, I mean.”
“If he does, he does. But Bastion’s going to have to step up his game if he wants to measure up. I’m sure he can, though. I mean, he’s a smart kid and he has shapeshifting powers just like that. That alone should give him an edge.”
Starlight blinked.
Shapeshifter? Oh yeah, he is, technically.
That’s weird, though, has he changed shape already?
Don’t think I’ve seen it.
Eh, probably nothing.
“Okay, who’s ready to fight a runaway mimic house on chicken legs?” came a voice behind them.
“Right with you, sir Buckler,” Starlight joked. “If our esteemed druid companion can show up, that is.”
“Sage is probably still sending messages back and forth to B.T. about the game tomorrow. He’ll be around in a few minutes.”
Again, her train of thought went off the rails. “I just realised you never actually told the boys what the game is.”
“We like to surprise them,” Sunburst said.
“You never told me, either. And I also don’t know who B.T. is. Is it a Canterlot pony? I might know them.”
Sunburst rolled his eyes. “Yeah, that’s Sage Cracker for you. He kind of expects ponies to ask if they don’t know. Really annoying, if you ask me. Anyway, B.T. is a museum curator in Canterlot. He’s also a fairly powerful Unicorn, friends with a few folks in the E.E.A., and with the changeling scare going on, he prefers to be addressed by his shortened name. He’s one of those ponies with a bloodline, you see: his name betrays his power.”
“Ah, that’s why Live Wire said he was one of the restraining orders: he made a mess in B.T.’s museum, I take it?”
“Accidental discharge, almost started a fire.” Sunburst entered the room and got his things out of a chest in the corner. "Doldrum got into some trouble during a few class visits, early on after he got his cutie mark, when he couldn't handle crowds at all. So he got slapped with a similar restraining order."
“And what is B.T. like, then? Another super strong pony like Doldrum, then? Or a powerful innate magic like Live Wire?”
Sunburst set up his D.M. screen and tapped his chin. “You know, technically? Kinda like both, but right down the middle.”