“Hello, this is Silver Sparks, wizard for hire!”
“Hey, are you any good with potions?” The voice on the other end of my phone was young, probably human, almost certainly male.
“Not really… What are you looking for?”
“A love potion. See, there’s this girl-”
“Nope!” I cut him off. “Not happening. How did you get this number?”
“Uh… I got one of your cards from a friend-of-a-friend.”
“Did you read the whole thing?” I glared. The guy on the phone couldn’t see me, so I glared at a novel that was lying on my desk.
“Yeah?” He sounded confused.
“Both sides?”
A pause. Then a beep. Then a sigh, but from me, not my phone. The sigh was quickly followed by a groan. I needed coffee.
The night before, Elsie had lent me a book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, claiming that it might help me understand human perceptions of wizards. I stayed up far too late reading it, then had nightmares about humans plucking my mane and tail to make wands.
I gave the book another glare, and retreated into the kitchen.
Instant coffee, while not quite as good as the real thing, is much more convenient. Also cheaper, which is important when you’re a broke wizard, and your housemate is a broke university student.
Unfortunately, my phone rang again as I was making my coffee. Bother. Better not keep a potential client waiting.
“Hello, this is Sil-”
“Yeah yeah, I know who you are.” The same voice from earlier cut me off. “Listen, it doesn’t have to be a love potion. How about mind control?”
“That’s illegal! The Grey Tower nearly took my horn when I was a filly, I’m not giving them another excuse.”
“Huh? Grey Tower?”
“To put it really, really, simply? Wizard police.” A vast oversimplification, but good enough, considering my caffeine-deprived state.
Silence. Beep. Slurp. Then a sigh, but this one was of satisfaction. My coffee was delicious.
“What’s illegal?” Elsie was looking at me over a huge bowl of Coco Pops. She’d waited for me to finish my drink, Harmony bless her.
“Mind control.”
“Oh.” She frowned. “I don’t think we actually have laws against that yet.”
“You should,” I said, as I went back to my office.
My phone rang again as I was about to get back to Harry Potter, and I eyed it warily for a moment before answering. I didn’t even get a chance to say anything before the guy started talking.
“Hey, me again, are you sure you won’t make a love pot-”
I hung up on him this time.
The next time the phone rang, I decided that I had had enough.
“For the last time, I am not going to make a bucking love potion! If you ask again I shall cast a hex through this phone that will melt your teeth, tie your bones in knots, and then hurl you through the Nothing Between and leave you stranded in a desolate wasteland!”
Teeth-melting was theoretically doable – not that I actually would! Certainly not through a phone. Bone-knotting was right out. Banishing him to another plane I could probably do – with enough preparation – but the Planar Exploration Society would never allow it, and Director Dawn might even make Stormlight drag me back to Equestria for trying.
Speaking of Stormlight, I thought I could hear her laughing for some reason.
Oh.
Maybe I should’ve held my tongue until I knew who was calling.
“Somebody's having a rough morning, aren’t they?” She burst into another fit of giggles.
“Yeah… I kept getting called by this creep who wouldn’t take no for an answer. Anyway, what can I do for you?”
“Well, old Mr. Sweep picked up another rift, only this one’s staying open. Nothing’s come through it yet, but it’s – Hey! Stay away from that! – attracting some attention. Think you can close it?”
“I can certainly try. Where is it?”
“Camberwell Station, west end of platform three.”
“Oh, that’s really close, I can walk there.”
“Bet that’s a relief, huh?” I could hear the smirk in her voice. “See you in a few.”
“Yeah, see you soon.”
After putting my phone away, I checked the contents of my saddlebags, then tossed in a small jar of acorns. I grabbed an extra stick of chalk too, just in case, and then, after a moment’s hesitation, a small black box. Better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.
I put my saddlebags on, shouted a goodbye to Elsie, scribbled ‘Out for business, back soon (hopefully)’ on a sticky note, and put it on my door. Then I set off.
A few minutes later, I arrived at the station, and sure enough, there was a tear in reality near the end of the platform. At first glance, it looked like the portal at Stonehenge, dull grey in the middle with rainbow light around the edges. However, the edges were frayed, and wobbling slightly. It was roughly circular, and just over a meter in diameter.
Stormlight was standing in front of it, along with a pale brown pegasus stallion I didn’t recognise. I walked over to her, and she started talking before I could even say hello.
“I wanna go through. My brother might be out there.”
Of course she did. The reason Stormlight joined the PES was because her brother, Stormrage, vanished into a rift like this when they were just foals. The odds of him being on the other end of this one – or even still alive – were incredibly low. Still, I knew that wouldn’t stop her. At least she’d waited for me.
“Stormy, we have no idea what’s on the other side. There might not even be any air!”
“So? You can scope it out, right? Like Astral Step does?” She was referring to my mentor, back in Equestria. He could create a sort of magical duplicate of himself, which he could move separately from his physical body, and see, hear and feel what it could.
“He never offered to teach me, and I never asked. It was his special talent, not mine.” If he’d offered, that would’ve been one thing, but even thinking about asking him felt weird.
“C’mon, Silver, surely you can think of something. You’re like, the smartest unicorn I know!”
“I’m really not.” She doesn’t know many unicorns, but I’m not saying I’m stupid. However, the list of unicorns she does know includes not only Master Step, but also Luster Dawn - the director of the PES.
“Most versatile?” That… was probably true. Besides, if I didn’t even try, she’d sulk for at least a week.
“Fine, but I’m charging you double. Triple if anything tries to eat me.”
“Done.” We bumped hooves. The stallion cleared his throat and raised an eyebrow.
“Oh please, she’s only joking.” Stormy lightly punched him on the shoulder, before introducing us.
“Oh, right. Silver, this is Spear Kicker, one of my coworkers. Kicker, I’m sure you’ve heard all about Silver Sparks.”
“Oh yeah, the infamous Magus Sparks. I didn’t realise you’d be so… normal.”
“Infamous? What, were you expecting tall, dark, and terrifying?” That made him flinch.
“Uh… sort of, yeah.” He chuckled, but didn’t meet my eyes. “Sorry...”
“Don’t listen to the rumours. Listen to… Well, I guess listen to Stormlight, and remember that she likes to exaggerate sometimes.”
Stormlight pouted at that, but decided to change the subject instead of denying it.
“So, Silver, how are you gonna scout it out?”
I didn’t answer her straight away. Instead, I poked around in my saddlebags for a moment, pretending to think. Then, I pulled out an acorn.
“With this.”
“Huh?” Spear Kicker looked baffled. Stormlight grinned at him.
“Oh, this oughta be good.”
I stepped closer to the rift, and retrieved some chalk from my bags to draw a circle on the ground. Part of the rift was above the inside of the circle – it was right there, after all, so it made more sense to use that than to poke another hole in reality.
Putting the acorn in the center of the circle, I reached out to the rift with my magic, and pulled forth a small trickle of Nothing. Nothing is the stuff between worlds, and the base material for most conjuration spells. Lady Luna calls it ‘Ectoplasm’, and Director Dawn calls it ‘Aether’, but Master Step calls it ‘Nothing’, so I do too.
I wrapped the acorn in Nothing, focused my magic, and uttered a name.
“Ratatoskr!”
There was a flash of violet light, and then a squirrel was sitting in front of me. Spear Kicker’s mouth dropped open, Stormlight burst out laughing, and an old lady muttered something about witchcraft.
I picked up the squirrel with telekinesis, gave it some mental instructions, and pushed it through the tear in the universe.
“...Now what?” Spear Kicker asked.
“Now we wait.”
Two minutes later, the squirrel came back through the rift.
“Well, it survived, that’s a good sign.” I grabbed it in my aura and gleaned what I could from its mind - or at least, what passed for its mind. It was only a conjuration, after all. The information came across as flashes of feelings, sensations, and colours.
Warmth. Green. Damp air. Earthy scents. Birdsong. Dim light. Purple. The faint smell of blood.
“I think the other end is in some kind of rainforest. I can’t tell if there’s any magic there, though,” I said, as I dismissed the spell holding the squirrel together. It dissolved into a rainbow mist that faded into the air, drawing a few ‘ooh’s from the surrounding humans.
“Hmm. That could be a problem. I still wanna check it out, though. Got any rope?” Stormlight’s response drew a gasp from Spear Kicker, and he sputtered for a moment before speaking.
“Please tell me you’re not thinking what I think you’re thinking…”
“I’m gonna go through, take a quick peek around, and then come back in thirty seconds, tops. If I’m not, you two pull me back. If it closes behind me, Silver, you’ll be able to open it again, right?” I nodded slowly. It’d probably be only for a few moments, but it should be long enough for her to get back to Earth.
I dug through my saddlebags, retrieved a coil of rope, and tied it around her middle, under her wings. I levitated the other end over to Spear Kicker, who bit down on it, and I held part of it with my aura.
Spear Kicker gulped, and Stormlight smirked at him.
“Don’t worry, I’ve done this before.”
“You’ve gone through a wild rift before?” Even talking around the rope, he managed to sound incredulous. I didn’t blame him.
“Oh. When you put it that way, no.” She shrugged, stepped through, and vanished. Spear Kicker’s jaw dropped open again, and the rope fell out. I sighed.
Five seconds passed.
Then ten.
Then twenty.
Then, at twenty-four, the rift snapped shut.
Buck.
There were a few gasps from the onlookers, and a rapid string of curses from Spear Kicker. He turned to me, his eyes wide, just like mine.
“Please tell me you can get her back, please please please, Sensor Sweep will have my head if he finds out I let her pull a stunt like this!”
“Not with you babbling at me like that, I can’t. Give me some space.”
He took a few steps back, and I took a deep breath, to try to stop myself from panicking.
I stepped back into the chalk circle and lit my horn, probing for what I can only describe as a tiny scar in the fabric of reality. I was hoping to find some remnant of the rift, for without it I had no chance of rescuing my best friend.
I found it.
Now, I just had to open it.
I gathered my magic, as much as I could, and forced it through the ‘scar’ with a yell.
“BIFRÖST!”
The violet light of my magic flickered with rainbows for a brief moment, then went out. Spear Kicker let out a few more curses, and there were a few more gasps from the crowd, as well.
Buck. Time for plan B.
“It’s okay,” I told everyone, fervently hoping that was true. “Just… stand a bit further back, and don’t panic. Please, don’t panic.”
I searched my saddlebag, pulled out my little black box, and took a deep breath before opening it. Inside were thirteen shards of silver.
I levitated the shards out, fitting them together into a blade as I floated the box over to Spear Kicker.
“Don’t lose this.” He gave me a horrified look and sputtered something, but I ignored him.
“Hrím.” Frost coated the sword as I spoke its name, and poured not just my magic into it, but a little piece of my soul as well. It was a dangerous and powerful spell, and one of the few necromantic arts that wasn’t outright forbidden.
It took me a moment to find the last trace of the rift, as it was fading fast. I carefully slid the tip of my sword into it, then slashed down, cutting a hole in the universe.
I lost track of everything but colours for a few moments after that.
Purple light from my horn, flaring into rainbows as the portal opened.
The empty grey, seeming to stretch for eternity, as I wondered if I’d ever see Stormlight again.
Then a familiar combination of yellow and blue, as she flew out of the portal – and right into me!
The impact broke my concentration, causing the portal to vanish and Hrím to fall to the ground in pieces. But that was okay. I didn’t need them anymore.
The humans cheered as Stormlight landed on top of me. She was shaking. I could hear her breathing, shallow and rapid, and feel her heartbeat, fast and strong. I raised a hoof and awkwardly stroked her mane.
“Stormlight. Stormy! Hey! It’s okay! I’ve got you. You’re safe. You’re here. You’re safe.”
“Yeah… Yeah thanks, Silver. I- I knew you’d be able to do it. It’s why I wanted you here, heh.”
She got off me, and I stood up and pressed my side against hers. She was still shaking a little.
“Hey, Silver, are you okay? You’re really cold. Oh…” Stormlight’s voice trailed off as she noticed the silver shards lying on the ground. Among them was a small branch with purple leaves, which definitely hadn’t been there before. I gathered up the fragments of my sword, relieved Spear Kicker of the box, then stuffed them all into my bags.
“I’ll be fine.”
“You’re insane! Both of you! I guess the rumours were true after all.” Spear Kicker’s wings flared and he stomped his hooves. I just ignored him, but Stormy flared her own wings and got in his face.
“Shut it, Kicker! Silver’s twice the mare you’ll ever be! Twice the mage, too. Come on Sparky, let’s get you home, my shift’s pretty much over and it’ll be nice to see Elsie again.”
Spear Kicker just stood there, a puzzled frown on his face. Stormy grabbed the branch and put it in my saddlebags, then flung some of my business cards into the dispersing crowd.
“Silver Sparks, wizard for hire, everybody!”
As we turned to leave, I heard Spear Kicker say something, more to himself than anyone else.
“I’m a stallion. A pegasus stallion.” He sounded absolutely baffled.