//------------------------------// // Welcome to the Magic Club // Story: Canterlot High Magic Club // by Luminous Comet //------------------------------// Sunset looked at everyone gathered at the table. Applejack and Rarity, who she had managed to help on Monday night. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, with whom her attempt to patch things up had turned surprisingly scary. And Pinkie Pie, who was just tired of being left out. She looked over her shoulders both ways. The lunch hall was starting to clear out, only a few students still sitting in small groups. It wasn't the most private place, but at this point nobody wanted to drag things out longer. "Alright. It started when this appeared in my room." She set her notebook onto the table between them, opening it on an early page. Everyone leaned in to take a closer look, Pinkie halfway getting up and almost climbing onto the table. "There was a letter, too. I don't know who sent it but it sure seemed like they knew me." "Ooh, creepy!" Pinkie noted cheerfully. Sunset put a hand on her shoulder and gently made her sit down again. "Yeah, before I continue... there's no easy way to say this." She made an effort to look as serious as possible. "Pinkie Pie, magic is real." The wild-haired girl looked back at her, blinking slowly, before snorting a short laugh. "Well, duh!" The air seemed to freeze for a second. Disbelief, irritation, and disappointment all mixed into one before vanishing just as quickly. "Okay, cool." She turned back to the book and pointed at a page, but stopped short of continuing when someone else popped up, jumping up in-between Fluttershy and Rarity, making the former squeak in surprise. "Did somebody say magic!? The Great and Powerful Trixie will show you the true meaning of the word!" With a flourish, she retrieved a hand of cards from somewhere inside the night-blue cape she had thrown over her shoulders. "You, Squeaky One, pick any of Trixie's--" There was a tug on her cape as Rarity pulled it closer to herself. "Ooh, that is some well-made stitching. Where did you get this?" Trixie's attention immediately shifted and she pushed her chest out proudly. "Trixie made it herself!" "Amazing, Darling. Do tell me all about that later. After my... private conversation with my friends," Rarity emphasised with a stern look, never dropping her customer service smile. Trixie shrunk back and smiled sheepishly. "Oh. I'm sorry." Dropping her persona, she quickly turned away and instead caught up with a few other students on the way out, starting her spiel over again. "Say what you will, her tricks are getting better," AJ said casually, before Sunset let out a heavy sigh. "Okay, as I was saying... I didn't believe what I was reading at first, but I also couldn't explain how it got into my place. I thought it was just some weird stalker at first. Honestly, haven't really ruled out the stalker part. But when I started actually reading these notes and tried some things out, I--" "Hey, Fluttershy!" Two girls appeared at one end of the table, the shorter twin putting her hands on it. "Are you still coming to my Pet Party on Sunday?" "Oh, um, yes, thank you Cloudchaser. I'm very excited for it," Fluttershy answered quietly. "Cool, see ya 'round!" Cloudchaser took her sister's arm and started walking off again, a small group of students following the both of them. Sunset waited a moment. "Anyway," she then said pointedly, "when I started to try some things, I did get results. First it was just kind of an uncertain feeling, but--" "Goo'bye, Sunset, see ya at work!" Her eye twitched and she strained to just smile and wave at Derpy, who nearly walked headlong into the doorframe amidst her excited waving. As soon as she was out the door, Sunset rested her head on her arms and groaned. "Okay, this is not going to work. Let's eat up and find an empty classroom." =====***===== Sunset looked both ways down the hallway for any potential distractions, before closing the door and heading to the desks the others had pushed together. "Okay, I think we have enough privacy now." "Finally, we can get started!" Pinkie groaned with an exaggerated gesture. "Could have started much sooner if ya hadn't gone for seconds," Applejack noted drily. "Hm. Oh yeah." Pinkie shrugged and leaned an elbow on the desk, fishing into a pocket with her other hand to start snacking on a cookie. Sunset put the notebook down between all of them again. "As I was going to say earlier, I learned a few things from these notes. Detecting magic for instance. Then there's this." She snapped her fingers, lighting a small flame, just enough to demonstrate, before snuffing it out again. "If you could do that, why didn't you burn that thing earlier?" Rainbow Dash asked, raising an eyebrow. "Because you were close to it and it was heading for Fluttershy. I didn't want to risk hurting either of you." Rainbow settled back in her chair, crossing her arms, begrudgingly satisfied with the answer. "Everything else is still theory, though. I haven't even read everything in here. And a lot of it doesn't make sense to me yet. Whoever put these together didn't exactly have an organised process." "So, um, what was it you did with my sweater earlier?" Fluttershy asked softly. "A disspell rune. I thought I saw something like it during my reading and after what happened to Rarity on Monday, I made sure to check it again." She opened the notebook on a page marked with a small slip of coloured tape, featuring a cleanly hand-drawn image of the rune on one side and scrawled notes on the other. "Luckily it worked the way I interpreted it. I couldn't exactly test it until today." "That's all well an' good," Applejack started, "But this is twice our friends ended up in danger in one week. And I have definitely never heard of anythin' like this before." Sunset nodded and took out a small, black leather calendar from her bag, far more organised than the magic notes. "First the sewing machine in the Crafts room, then the mascot and the team sweater at P.E. For all we know, that's not all of them, either. If it can happen twice, it can happen again." "Dreadful. I almost couldn't work all week because of that horrid day," Rarity commented, playing with a lock of her hair, "I certainly won't wish that on anyone else." "But, here's the thing. If I'm thinking about this right, magic doesn't just... happen. If these were enchanted, someone must have worked the magic. Someone with access to the school facilities." "Ooh, ooh!" Pinkie raised her hand so high she had to stretch out her shoulder. "Yes, Pinkie?" "That could be any student or any member of staff! Any at all!" she declared excitedly. "Or any who know magic," Rainbow Dash said pointedly. Rarity gently laid a hand on Dash's shoulder. "Now, Rainbow Darling, I know you two have history. But I for one will give Sunset the benefit of the doubt here, no matter how badly behaved she was before. Um, no offence." "Um... none taken. I really was like that, after all." "I'll hafta agree," AJ added firmly. "On Monday night, Sunset might've nearly gotten herself seriously injured tryin' ta help Rarity. I doubt she would go that far for a setup." Sunset smiled at the support and put a hand on her chest. "Rainbow Dash, I know you don't trust me. And I'm not asking you to. But I'm letting you in on this because I trust you. Because all of you have been through this now and if you feel the same way about it as I do, then you can't just let this go." She looked around the circle of girls, most of them nodding their silent agreement. "I didn't go through anything!" Pinkie volunteered, then shrugged at the looks she got. "But you guys are my friends, so I'm in anyway!" Rainbow looked between all her friends before sighing in defeat. "Fine. So what do we do?" "I suppose... find the enchanter and stop them from causing any more chaos. At best, they are dangerously negligent. At worst, they are deliberately trying to hurt people. Not to mention what we could learn from them. And we already have a lead, too." "Mystery girl," AJ chimed in with a nod. "Exactly. On Monday night, someone else besides the three of us was at school. We don't know who she is, but from what Applejack described, we can probably conclude she's a student. If she's not the enchanter, then she might know something." She looked up from her personal notes, trying to gauge everyone's state of mind. "So... who's in?" "Ooh, I am!" Pinkie called immediately, reaching out and putting her hand over Sunset's on the calendar. "It's like playing detective, except we're actually detecting and not playing at all!" "You can count me in, Sugar. If anyone else is bein' endangered, we gotta do somethin' about it." Applejack placed her hand on Sunset and Pinkie's as well. "Well, I never said I wouldn't help." Rainbow Dash leaned forward to put her hand in. "And... I guess what you did was pretty awesome." "I can hardly pretend none of this is happening. Besides, I am far too curious about those notes of yours." Rarity daintily placed her hand on Rainbow's. "Well, um, since you're all helping, I also want to do my part." Fluttershy added her hand on top. "You know, if that's okay." Sunset looked around at all of them, their expectant faces looking back at her. Her heart fluttered a little and an involuntary smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. "Thank you, girls. I don't think I could do this by myself. Let's solve a mystery!" She pushed her hand up and everyone raised their hands in sync. "Yeah!"