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// Chapter 4: Magic in a Young Mare's Heart 
// Story: Tangled Up In Purple 
// by Crescent Pulsar 
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Ranma found himself in the darkness once again.

However, something was different. Not with the situation, but with himself. He could feel it, even if it wasn't entirely physical. There was a certain clarity of mind, as well as a lingering warmth in his chest. He was certain that it was caused by the energy that he had carelessly tried to control, which he was now very much aware of, like he had a sixth sense for it.

Raising a hoof, he rested it upon his breast, where he was sure the energy was concentrated. With ki, which was concentrated in the abdomen, some of the most basic uses came from passive strength and endurance, gut instinct that alerts one of imminent danger, and using primitive emotions to manipulate it easier. Since this new energy was where his heart was, and had a different nature compared to ki, he could only guess what the optimal applications were between the two.

He was broken out of his introspection by the reptile, who was waving a claw in front of his face while saying something. Taking a brief look around, he established that he was in the chariot again, presumably being taken to that horse town, and that the darkness was almost completely gone.

On a whim, and with little conscious thought, he used his new awareness of that energy to grasp the parchment in the reptile's hand and pulled it toward him. Since the reptile had been holding it hard enough so the wind wouldn't take it, and hadn't expected the action, one corner was shredded as a result. He didn't care about that, or the reptile's protestation, as he analyzed what he was doing with the energy.

It was surprising how easy it was to use it, considering what had happened when he had first tried to use it. All it took was a desire and he got the result that he wanted. Which made sense, he supposed, since the energy was concentrated where the heart was. That might also explain why the energy didn't respond well to being pushed or pulled from the outside, because it responded to him really well now that he was synchronized with it, as a part of him as opposed to being a separate entity.

When he moved the parchment out of sight, he could tell where it was, relative to his own position. He could feel the cart, reptile and flying horses within his zone of influence as well, but in either case he got an impression of shape, rather than visual information being provided to his mind's eye, when he closed his eyes. After grasping one of the cart's wheels with the energy, without letting go of the parchment, he simultaneously learned that he could multitask and sense resistance to the force he employed.

Taking into account what had happened when the energy had gone out of control, he didn't think that it was psychic in nature, or life energy, like ki. The horses didn't appear to be spiritual creatures either, so his best guess was that the energy might actually be magic, largely from his personal experience with it — both directly and otherwise.

Noticing that the chariot was going to land soon, he turned to face the rear and jumped out just as it began to fly below the height of the nearby rooftops. The landing was rough but manageable, which was strange, but something that he could worry about later: he wanted to try an idea that he thought of earlier and hopefully avoid getting bothered by the reptile at the same time.

Grasping his whole body with magic, he was happy to see himself rise into the air when he directed it to happen. There was a very noticeable difference between his weight and the parchment's, but he was optimistic that he could move himself at a good clip without it being too tiring. For now, though, he just wanted to stay out of sight, so he could explore what he could do with magic without being bothered by anyone who didn't speak Japanese.

Once he had carried himself high enough into the air to comfortably see over the nearby houses, he passed over a couple of them before deciding on a roof to land on. To make sure no one had followed him, he turned to look back at where he had come from and touched noses with that pink horse.

"Gah!" He yelped in surprise while stumbling backward, hearing the pink horse gasp like she had the last time before he lost his footing on the ridge and tumbled off of the roof.

He landed painfully upon his posterior, making him hiss and curl up onto his side so he could rub his tailbone. When the pain subsided enough for him to stand up and look about, he found himself alone, and he made doubly sure of that so he wouldn't be caught off guard again. Whoever that horse was, they were really good at sneaking around, if he couldn't detect their presence. Although why she needed to approach him and gasp like that, he had no idea.

With a mental shake of his head, he returned his focus to testing out the magic that he now had control over. While he was thinking about what he should try, a shadow zipped across the ground in front of him, and he caught sight of a flying horse before they disappeared behind a house. It inspired him to look at the sky directly above him and wonder how high he could levitate himself.

Intrigued, he grasped himself with magic and began to lift himself into the air as fast as he could, which was attained when his focus was strained but maintainable. He watched as the town quickly shrank below him, only raising his sight when he began to see small, wispy clouds passing by. Soon after he did, he began to deliberately aim for the clouds before trying to avoid them, like they were a part of an obstacle course. At the speed he was traveling, and his poor but improving maneuverability, his performance was rather mixed.

Shortly after he rose above the local clouds, he was startled and lost his grip on himself when the end of a moving rainbow suddenly resolved itself into a flying horse upon stopping nearby, who confusedly asked, "What in the hay are you doing up here?"

After he stopped himself from falling, he regarded the flying horse with an annoyed expression as she lowered herself to his level, which he lost once he got a good look at her. Aside from the rainbow hair making her look rather girly, at least to him, there was something about her that felt familiar, in a way that was welcome. It made him consider trying to interact with her despite the language barrier.

"Why are you staring at me like that?" She asked, looking equal parts uncomfortable and agitated. "It's weird."

Getting an idea of what she was saying by her expression, he spontaneously decided to try and communicate with her instead of brushing her off. Since he didn't know exactly what to say, before trying to convey it, he stopped regarding her and assumed a thinking pose, hoping that the rainbow-haired horse would get the idea and give him some time.

Unfortunately, she became more agitated and crossed her forelegs. "Why aren't you saying anything?"

Since she was getting impatient, he opted to start with something simple. So, right as he jabbed a hoof at his breast, he stated, "Ranma."

Nonplussed by the response, she mimed the gesture with uncertainty and said, "Rainbow Dash?"

"Nice to meet you," he said in heavily-accented English, "Lamebow Dash."

Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes angrily. "What did you just call me?"

Seeing her reaction, he quickly knelt down and lowered his head to where the ground would normally be, with his hooves placed together above his head. Normally he wouldn't go so far as to prostrate himself before someone for accidentally insulting them, but he neither looked like himself and he needed a strong message to convey what he meant.

With his mind focused on that, he fell back on his native language instead of employing an appropriate word in his limited English vocabulary. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean whatever I said!"

Trading in her glare for a frown, Rainbow Dash considered him for a time. When she decided on what course of action to take, she drew closer to him and tapped him on the shoulder. When he looked up at her, she looked him straight in the eye as she pointed to herself and said, "Rainbow Dash."

Noticing the emphasis, he had an idea of the mistake that he'd made and carefully said, "Rainbow Dash."

Rainbow Dash nodded her head before backing out of his personal space and regarding him with a thoughtful expression. "Huh. I know ponies come from all over the place for the Summer Sun Celebration, but I didn't know that there were ponies out there who didn't understand Common very well."

While he didn't know what she was saying, apart from catching a few familiar words, he could tell that he had piqued her curiosity. After a long moment, where she furrowed her brow in consideration, she drew a question mark in the air and said, "Why," she pointed at him, "are you," she then gestured to the space around them with a sweep of both forehooves, "up here?"

Thankful that she used words that he knew, and he wasn't too distracted to catch them, he got up from his prone position and tried to come up with an answer that would be understood. Unfortunately, his very limited vocabulary lacked the key words he needed to explain what he was doing. So, he tried pointing at his horn, followed by flapping his forelegs like wings, then paused before deciding on mimicking shadow boxing, hoping that it would be understood as practice or training instead of fighting.

"You know," she began, while stroking her chin and looking at him shrewdly, "I should be preparing to show my moves to the Wonderbolts, or getting the sky cleared for tomorrow morning, bu-uuuut..." She lowered her hoof and grinned. "If you mean what I think you mean, then count me in."

She proceeded to rocket downward, and he watched as she began to gather clouds — somehow — and brought them to his height. It wasn't until she began to make rings out of some of them that he realized what she was doing, and smiled with anticipation. It seemed that they had a similar enough mindset for her to understand him.

After she finished putting the obstacle course together, she demonstrated how to run it, although at such a speed that he suspected that she was showing off a little as well. That didn't bother him, though, since he had been able to keep track of her, partly because of the rainbow contrail that she left in her wake. That, and because it seemed like they were birds of a feather, in a manner of speaking. So, when she gestured for him to give it a try, he eagerly went to the starting line and — at her direction — didn't begin until she chopped the air.

At first, his performance wasn't pretty, in part because he didn't want to slow down too much. The slalom, in particular, gave him a lot of trouble. Then, once he'd gotten a handle on the course, Rainbow Dash, who had already been amused by his efforts, had even more fun when she began to alter the course between runs and move things manually during them. That included adding the occasional thunder cloud to rain on the optimal path, or kicking them to produce lightning and thunder, to scare him away from it.

Eventually, despite there being plenty of room for improvement, fatigue and an aching horn prompted him to take a break. Having seen Rainbow Dash laying on clouds several times, like she was now, he made his way over to a nearby cloud and ceased holding himself in the air once he was above it. He promptly fell through the cloud and had to catch himself, despite his body's protests. Then he shot Rainbow Dash a dirty look, who was guffawing and pounding a foreleg upon her seemingly-solid cloud.

Once she'd had her fill, she flew over to him and hooked her forelegs underneath his own, from behind. Disappointed that he wouldn't be resting on a cloud, he nevertheless released himself and allowed her to carry him back down to terra firma.

After they landed and were facing each other, Rainbow Dash idly commented, "You're an interesting pony, Ranma."

She raised a foreleg, which he stared at blankly for a few seconds before assuming it must be an offer for a handshake, since she spoke English. However, when he reached out to attempt the gesture with hooves, she firmly bumped her hoof against his before withdrawing it.

"I have some practice of my own to do," she said, "so I'll see you around." She pointed to something behind him, which turned out to be a large tree that had been converted into a building. "And if you're going to be here for a while, learn more Common so we can have a real conversation, okay?"

With that said, she took off into the sky. He watched her become a speck in the distance before turning to face the building. It had a sign out front, with an open book depicted on it, suggesting that it might be a book store or a library. He had an idea of why it had been pointed out to him, which he wasn't interested in yet, but he figured that he might as well see if there was a book that taught English, in case that ended up being his ticket out of the book.