//------------------------------//
// 9 - Thaumaturgy 
// Story: A Fateful Flurry 
// by FIygon 
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"Sunburst!! What are you doing here?!" The pink filly yelled excitedly as she nuzzled into him ceaselessly.

Sunburst laughed and worked to pull the filly off himself, at least enough to allow him to stand once again. "Well, you knew I was coming for hearth’s warming; I’m not too early, I hope." 

Flurry rapidly shook her head as Stellar Flare pushed her way past her son, saying, "Oh, you’ve grown so much!"

Flurry excitedly went for a hug with Stellar and Sunspot before backing up and grabbing Sunburst’s hoof. "Come on!"

Shining joined up with the group as they made their way into the living room, and Sunburst gave him a wide-eyed look before smiling with a chuckle. "Nice beard Shining." He said this while examining his friend’s modest beard.

Shining seemed to blush a bit, but he coughed awkwardly to hide it. "Yep, well um… Cadance liked it, so I kept it."

Sunburst nodded. "A few more years, and it might be as magnificent as my own." He teased him.

Shining chuckled: "I don’t intend to grow one that long."

It wasn’t long before they reached the living room, and Cadance approached with a welcoming smile, "Hi! How is everyone?" 

Stellar Flare smiled, "Oh, just wonderful, dear." Sunspot nodded in agreement.

Sunburst smiled and bowed his head lightly before walking over and giving Cadance a large hug. "Good, I hope the same has been for you." Sunburst said.

Cadance released a small nod, "Yes, we’ve been quite well. If a little busy." She gestured down to her left, where an identical copy of Flurry stood.

The foal gave a small head tilt before waving his hoof awkwardly. Sunburst realized he was staring at him uncomfortably, and he quickly gave out a greeting. "Hi there, Kieran, is it?"

Kieran looked up in curiosity as he seemed to scan the stallion first before nodding his head, "Yes sir."

Sunburst laughed lightly and said, "Don’t say sir, it makes me feel old. I prefer Sunburst."

Flurry giggled from nearby: "Yeah, his name is Sunny!"

Kieran’s expression almost seemed relieved at that moment, and he nodded with a smile, "Sure thing. It’s nice to meet you, Sunburst."

"Likewise," he replied. Sunburst could barely help but stare at the foal; it was just so fascinating.

He found himself looking between Flurry and Kieran multiple times, trying to make sense of it all. Cadance noticed and whispered quietly, "It’s remarkable, isn’t it?"

Sunburst gave her a very serious yet unsure look, "That’s putting it way too lightly, my friend." He laughed nervously.

Flurry finished regaling Sunburst’s parents with tales of school and bounded over, slinging her free hoof around Kieran’s neck. "Before you ask, I have no idea how I did it." Flurry said before looking up with a smirk, "But now there are two of the cutest foals around!" She declared. The remark worried Cadance as she looked at Kieran for his reaction, but he seemed to giggle slightly at it himself, which eased her worries.

Kieran hummed, "So who are you? If you don’t mind me asking." Kieran asked curiously. "You look like a wizard. Like a pony version of Merlin or something." 

Cadance and Sunburst both laughed, and Sunburst waved his hoof dismissively, saying, "I’m not quite as powerful as those old fantasy stories of Marelin. But I do study magic quite extensively, since I’m not that great at casting magic."

Kieran nodded as Flurry practically pushed Kieran out of the way in disbelief. "You’re selling yourself short, Sunny! You know more about magic than most alicorns!"

Sunburst laughed, "And you might be overselling me."

There was a longer pause, and Cadance’s smile faltered a bit. "Should we get to it?"

Sunburst saw the worry on her features as he began to understand how important this was to her. Yet when he looked at Kieran, the foal seemed rather indifferent to the whole ordeal. That was until he opened his mouth again and asked, "Is this about me?" It was a simple question, but Sunburst noted that he was rather defensive in his tone. 

Sunburst smiled to try and ease his worry: "Cadance here recruited me to see if we can figure out what’s going on with your magic."

Kieran’s eyes widened a bit, and he hummed, "Oh." He seemed a little upset as he looked up at Cadance. "I thought you said there was nothing wrong with me?"

Cadance’s heart stopped for a moment in realization, and she laid on the floor to look him in the eyes. She leaned in and stroked the foal’s hair gently, "There isn’t anything wrong with you; I just want to make sure you’re as safe as possible." Kieran did lean into her hoof with an unsure expression.

The foal seemed to look between Sunburst and Cadance decisively and say, "If you think it will help," He mumbled quietly. Cadance tried to read his emotions in that moment, but they were quickly buried again as the foal looked up at Sunburst. "What kind of things are we doing?"

"You? Not very much." Sunburst began. "We’ll be doing an extra thorough scan of your body and a few other simple tests. Don’t worry, they’re not bad at all."

Kieran smirked. "Will you teach me magic?"

Sunburst hummed and looked at Cadance playfully. "I don’t know… Magic is reeeallly dangerous for foals!"

Flurry huffed loudly. "No, it’s not," she demonstrated her point by lighting her horn and picking up Sunburst. "See? You've got to teach me something cool!"

Sunburst quickly countered it with his own magic and floated down to the floor gracefully, saying, "I’ve seen what you’ve done since you were a baby, and I must reiterate, magic is dangerous."

Cadance sighed and dropped her head into her hoof. "Flurry, this is about Kieran. Not you learning new spells."

Sunburst laughed, "Plus, last time you experimented with magic, you cloned yourself."

Flurry growled and grabbed his hoof, beginning to drag Sunburst along. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Come on, we can use my room! I have a desk and everything for the operation table!"

"Operation!?" An alarmed Shining remarked as he was shocked out of his conversation. But soon realized the joke as Flurry began laughing loudly.

Kieran stared after them in silence, and Cadance nuzzled the back of his head, breaking him out of his stupor. "It’ll be alright."

Kieran turned and smiled at her, "I know; I trust you, Cadance." He said this before leaning forward and giving her a short nuzzle. Her heart melted a bit, but Kieran backed away with a large blush, as if he were surprised by his own actions, before running to catch up with the other two.

Cadance watched the three leave with her gaze fixed on him. Kieran seemed to be a bit lost in thought, yet eager at the same time. She wondered what was going through his mind. Her worry was interrupted as Stellar Flare entered her gaze. "Darling! How have you been?"





I trailed behind Flurry and Sunburst with a bit of apprehension. On one hoof, figuring out what was wrong would help me immensely, and I wanted to be rid of the problem as soon as possible. On the other hoof, the negative side of me kept saying weird experiments might make this odd copy magic end, sending me back out into the careless void.

Cadance… had lied to me. She knew as well as I did that there was something wrong with my magic. I know blowing up your horn isn’t right. I know hooves aren’t supposed to hurt. That I should be able to feel my wings on my back with ease. I was an alicorn; supposedly, everything should’ve been completely natural. But it wasn’t, because something was wrong with me, just like all the other things that were currently wrong with me.

But I didn’t blame Cadance; it wasn’t a malicious lie, and whether she was saying it more to convince herself or to ease my own thoughts didn’t matter. She didn’t want me to think something was wrong with myself. I huffed, ‘It’s not her fault; I just need to figure it all out,’ I thought with a sigh, shaking the negative emotions as far from my mind as possible.

I sighed outwardly, looking up at Sunburst and his leisurely gait.

Sunburst was hard to read. Cadance trusted him, though, and Flurry clearly loved him; he seemed to be an old family friend. Especially by the way that Flurry pranced along his side, engaging with him in conversation. I had to admit that he was kind of cool.

The cloak, the beard, the glasses, and the book strapped to his bags. I understood why he was held in such high regard; he was a wise and experienced wizard of the highest degree. Even the alicorns looked up to him when it came to matters involving magic; that thought alone was intense. What sort of magic did he know about? Was he still powerful enough as a wizard to put any RPGs I played in my past life to shame?

I stared at Sunburst in slight awe for a few more moments before a hint of jealousy overcame me. ‘Man, I want a cool cloak,’ I thought rather childishly with a huff. ‘Maybe if I get my own body, I can be a cool wizard too. Though Flurry already has me beat, she was like… a level ten necromancer already. I’ll catch up someday.’ My hopes were high, but the promise was likely hollow.

I shook my head to clear my thoughts. Being stuck in a world that had all the makings of a cool video game was great, if I wasn’t currently playing on that one difficulty that starts with nothing but a loincloth and their fists. I was probably weaker than a newborn earth pony at the moment, in comparison. Not that I was really planning any great adventures anytime soon, but the big ‘what if’ that sat in my mind was tantalizing. Who wouldn’t want to go on an adventure some day?

Flurry opened her door widely in a presentative way before giggling and bounding in excitedly. Sunburst looked around with a short chuckle, "Not much changes in here then, huh?" He teased before giving her a raised brow. "At least you still seem to be into art!"

Flurry nodded briskly as she levitated her artbook out and haphazardly tossed it his way. I ducked to dodge it, but Sunburst caught it without incident and flipped through to scan the pages with a wide smile, "Wow, you’ve really improved!" He praised her.

Flurry smiled back at him and said, "Thanks!" She suddenly affixed me with a playful glare: "You, patient, over here on the double!"

I huffed a bit and smirked, "Oh, but I’m terribly hurt! How can you expect me to walk all the wa-" She hadn’t even let me finish my act before she picked me up with ease in her magic aura and put me down in the chair in just a second or two.

Flurry giggled and rested her hooves on the arm of the chair. "How’s that for hospitable service?" She asked.

I stared forward at nothing in particular and mumbled, after shaking the weird feeling of magic away, "I feel violated."

Sunburst laughed at her as he came over, then adopted a more scolding tone: "Flurry, please don’t scare my patient." He emphasized, "You’re only my assistant." Flurry released a huff and crossed her forelegs with a short nod.

I watched intently as Sunburst pulled his saddlebags off with his magic, and he levitated over a small pouch for himself. He pursed his lips in thought before reaching his hoof in. My eyes immediately widened, watching his hoof disappear an inconceivable distance into the tiny pouch. And they widened even more as he began to pull out objects that would quickly grow up to their original much larger size. Far bigger than something befitting the size of the bag. Contraptions, of which none I recognized, but some were quite complicated-looking. "Whoa…" I muttered under my breath.

Sunburst smirked at us as he pulled a few more things out: "Magical artifact; I call it the pouch of possession." I held a hoof over my mouth as I released a sharp snort of laughter. He looked over curiously and asked, "What… stupid name?"

I waved my hoof, "No, no. I like it. What’s the rest of this stuff?" I asked, avoiding the question.

Distracted easily by the question, he moved between each device. "We have a thaumic energy capacitor, a radial leyline scanner, you know, basic stuff…" I raised my brows at that as he continued onto a few other things: "Then I have a magic equalizer, a thaumic polarizer, and finally a spell refactor."

I nodded my head slowly, "Yep… Makes no sense. Cool magic thingies."

Flurry giggled and leaned into my ear, "Don’t worry, he has tried explaining them to me, and I still don’t understand."

Sunburst then levitated out a short stool from the bag and set it in front of me. Sitting on his haunches, he brought out a notepad and pencil as well. "So, let’s begin with what you do know. And what you’ve done so far involving your magic."

I nodded shortly, "Let’s see… Magic is cool, and it comes from the horn and the hooves? It hurts to use, and I blow myself up every time I use magic."

Sunburst nodded a few times, "Mhm… yeah." He paused for a minute as he stared at his notepad, then he looked up at me with a serious look. "That’s not supposed to happen."

I stared incredulously as Flurry thankfully voiced my own opinion, "No duh." She huffed.

Sunburst pursed his lips, reached into his bag again, and pulled out a small plaque. Just from a short glance, I could tell it was a flowchart of sorts, and I tilted my head as Sunburst cleared his throat. "I think I should start with the very basics of thaumaturgy."

My eyes widened as a giddy expression spread across my face. "Really?"

He nodded as Flurry groaned, "That’s for babieeess!" she drawled. 

I looked over at her as she sat on her bed. "I might as well be a baby; other than talking, I really can’t read, eat by myself, fly, or do magic…"

Sunburst nodded, "He’s got a point, Flurry; everyone starts somewhere."

"I know, I just want to see if that would tick Sunburst off." Flurry replied quickly as she stuck her tongue out.

Sunburst rolled his eyes with an amused sigh, pushing his glasses up and locking eyes with me. He adorned a smile once again and asked a question: "Where do you think magic first starts?"

I hummed, "I would say horn, but it kind of feels like it comes from somewhere else? Like deeper in my body?"

He nodded. "Exactly. Each pony has a reserve of magic deep inside them. Simply called "thaumic energy", though "magic" as a label will more than suffice."

I nodded as he pointed towards the picture on the plaque. It reminded me of those posters doctors would have up in the hospital. But it was just an arrow pointing towards the center of a pony with the word "magic". 

He moved his hoof down the flowchart, "And what exactly do ponies use magic for?"

I hummed, "Well, unicorns can levitate stuff and cast spells; pegasus can manipulate clouds; and alicorns can do all of those? We also use magic to grab things?"

"You’re forgetting one," Sunburst said with a short smirk.

"Oh," I replied with a huff as I scraped my memory, "Earth ponies? I've already described them, right? They can only use hoof magic?"

Both Flurry and Sunburst gave me a tentative shake of the head, and my eyes widened. Sunburst explained before I had time to ask. "Earth ponies can channel their magic through leylines to their own limbs, making them by far the strongest of the three races."

"So, like super strength? Like a superhero?" I muttered mostly to myself in curiosity.

Sunburst pulled out another plaque with more explanation of the three races, pointing at it with a hoof in excitement. "Not only that, but they tend to have a connection with the lands of Equestria themselves. That’s why so many of them are farmers; they have a naturally green hoof." He explained.

I nodded and looked up. "So I have that power too?"

It looked as if he didn't want to give me a definitive answer to that. "We hope," he answered truthfully. "And your description of the other two races wasn’t wrong, but there’s more to it than it seems."

Flurry nodded eagerly, "Yeah! Pegasus don’t just move clouds; they can also control the weather and make the air flow in whatever way they want! Though, it’s mostly to help themselves fly." She answered excitedly.

Sunburst nodded. "And unicorns don’t just levitate and cast spells, though those are our main strengths…" He cleared his throat as I listened attentively. "Each unicorn has an affinity for something. Whether that be certain elements or a type of magic. Such as abjuration, evocation, conjuration, enchantment, divination, illusion, trasnmutation-"

"Sunburst…" Flurry cut him off with a groan, "Newbie over here, he won’t get all that."

"Oh," Sunburst said with a sudden moment of realization. "Sorry. The point is that unicorns usually develop some sort of affinity for one or more types of magic. It’s all much more advanced, so you shouldn’t worry about that for now." He reassured me.

My smile was probably wide enough to creep someone out if I were anywhere else except equestria and their likeness for smiles. "What’s your affinity, Sunburst?" I asked as I leaned in closer.

Sunburst blushed and worked to cover his face. "Oh, I… of course you’d want to uh… know that…" He seemed to mumble a bit to himself, beginning to pay no attention to me.

"Sunburst?" I said with a bit of worry.

He fixed his gaze back on me with nervousness, "Oh! Yes… Well… My affinity is…" He started with a confident smile, which slowly fell as he released a long sigh: "I don’t have… one." He muttered.

My eyes widened, and I felt a bit of guilt for asking. Flurry’s ears flopped to the side of her head as she trotted over and put her hoof on his side. "Sunny…" She sighed sadly. "That’s not true."

Sunburst gave her a sad smile, and a sigh escaped his mouth. "It is… and I’ve gone my whole life trying to pretend it’s not." He replied, "I love magic… I’ve spent my life learning so many things about it, I just… hate admitting that I can never do it much myself." 

The emotions covering his face were complicated, but even I could see how genuine his words were. And it hurt to hear that the thing he spent his entire life on was something he wasn’t perfect at or even good at. It put Sunburst in a new perspective for me, and I found myself respecting him even more. Being so important to the alicorns, even with no natural talent…

"I don’t think that’s true." I said defiantly.

Sunburst and Flurry both looked at me in surprise, and Sunburst sighed, "Thank you, but… I’m nothing special, really. I just read a lot of spellbooks and ancient… things." He said with an awkward laugh.

"No no." I quickly cut him off, "Maybe your affinity is special. I mean, you know so much about spells that even the alicorns look to you for guidance. That has to count for something, right?" I reminded him.

He smirked slightly, but I could see he was unconvinced. "So I’ve been told… I’ve never seen much specialty in it myself, however." Sunburst trailed off as he looked up and into my eyes.

I smiled and said, "I mean, you’re here to help me. And I think that’s pretty cool at least, for whatever it’s worth."

Sunburst sighed and adorned a large smile. "Thank you; it certainly helps to have a reminder every now and again." He sighed as the last vestiges of his sadness dissipated. "You remind me of Starlight; you sound just like her."

Flurry giggled, "You should've brought her!"

Sunburst scoffed, "I would’ve if I could’ve!" He countered playfully.

"Who is she?" I asked curiously.

Sunburst’s smile crept back in: "My wife, and the headmistress of the school of friendship."

"Nice." I said with a smirk back. But all that was going through my mind was questioning what a school of friendship was. And why it existed.

Sunburst’s eyes suddenly widened, and he became flustered, putting his hoof to his forehead, "Oh, this really wasn’t supposed to be about me at all. This is about helping you out, Kieran. Cadance will have my head if I don’t begin…" He said this with a huff as he began connecting things with his gadgets.

"It’s alright; now I trust you a bit more with whatever these monstrosities are whenever they come near me." I muttered while giving them a weary look.

I then had a few more long, drawn-out conversations about the machines and what they did. But half of it was far too advanced for my minimal understanding of thaumaturgy and all that. I learned that each pony has a series of connections inside themselves called "leylines" and that alicorns specifically have the most, unsurprisingly. 

Through the use of many devices, we deduced that my body had the correct amount of leylines for an alicorn. That my leylines were indeed working and that I do have a magic reserve inside my body. So by all reasoning, I should’ve been fine and dandy! Well, that wasn’t exactly true, but I should’ve been close to it!

Sunburst thought that my way of casting must’ve been wrong, but when he taught me the "correct" way, nothing happened except my usual smoke cloud explosion and a now-aching horn that he apologized profusely for. Throughout all of this, Sunburst had been recording every bit of data he could. Occasionally, he’d make a face or raise a brow. But for the most part, he was just as confused as us.

It was an hour or two later when Cadance entered the room, levitating a couple of drinks, which she generously provided. Though it seemed she’d done so as an excuse to see how everything was going, "Is… he okay?" She asked carefully, looking down at my splayed-out body as I was attached to about four machines in total.

I held my hoof up as I stared at the ceiling in boredom. "Never been better… Actually, nevermind, I have…" I said the last bit under my breath.

Sunburst was deep in thought and in what I would call "focus mode" when he glanced at his side, "He’s okay. It just… doesn’t make sense."

Cadance stared for a while longer as the machines made various beeps and humming sounds. I stared enviously at Flurry, who’d gotten bored and retreated to the corner of the room to play video games. Cadance gave me a reassuring smile before looking at him tentatively, "So… he’ll be okay. Right?" She urged for a more definitive answer.

Sunburst finished scribbling something new into his notes before he sighed, set it down, and gave her his full attention. "His leylines are perfect, his magic is in there, and his technique for casting is correct." He sighed as he searched for his words.

"But..?" Cadance said knowingly with a worried expression.

Sunburst grimaced: "But the way his own body reacts to the magic is… worrying. It’s almost completely rejecting it. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that it’s almost punishing Kieran for trying to cast it."

This immediately alarmed Cadance, as her eyes widened and her wings flared out a bit. "W-What? Why?" She said quite quickly.

Sunburst just shook his head slowly, "It’s simply an observation, Cadance; I’m not saying that’s what is happening. Just that it seems that way." Sunburst sighed and rubbed his head. "If I only had Starlight or Twilight here, I could do so much more testing." He scrambled his hair a bit.

Cadance leaned in and hugged him. "I know; thank you for trying so hard still." She told him.

"Yeah, I mean… at least we know it isn’t something super bad now, like a problem with leylines. I wasn’t casting any spells anytime soon anyway." I reassured him.

Sunburst stayed quiet for a minute, a long minute. "I could always take him with me…" He offered slowly, and Cadance looked at him in shock as he explained. "If I were to leave with Kieran, Starlight and Twilight would be more than willing to assist." His offer was nonchalant as he continued to work on his machines.

Cadance stayed quiet, looking at me for a long moment. We locked eyes, and I could see she wasn’t ready to let me leave but wouldn’t stop me if I agreed. And to be perfectly honest, I’d much rather stay with Cadance now, so I answered Sunburst quickly, "I think I’d rather stay… Thanks for the offer, though." 

Sunburst smirked but didn’t look up from his notepad. "That’s fair; they’ll be here next week anyway. The world is already confusing as it is, I bet. Best not throw in unnecessary travel." 

Cadance released what seemed to be a relieved sigh and leaned down to nuzzle me once before retracting, "Well, are there any other theories, Sunburst?"

He pursed his lips and glanced up. "Let’s see, leylines, magic reserves, casting, and…" His eyes widened as some sort of epiphany must’ve come to him. He began unplugging me from the many machines as I stared at him with a raised eyebrow. From behind him, Cadance seemed alarmed at his sudden actions.

Sunburst explained himself quicker than we could ask: "I just had a thought. Up until now, we’ve only had your body attempt to channel magic through normal means, using your own free will." This was starting to sound like mad scientist stuff now. He huffed as he pulled out another machine from deep within the bag. "But we’ve never attempted to make your body use magic through forced means. Esentially, I’m going to make your body cast a spell without any of your own effort needing to be put in."

Cadance reached her hoof out and said, "Sunburst, I-I don’t know if that’s a good-"

"There!" He interrupted loudly with a smirk as the machine was set out. "Now, I just need you to put this over your horn," He offered me a sort of suction cup that would rest over my horn. "And stare at this device right here." He said this, pointing at the odd crystal device that had some sort of screen on it.

"Sunburst," Cadance said weakly, with a bit more urgency.

Sunburst was completely lost in his own thoughts as he pulled his notepad back out and pursed his lips. He looked up at me, "Ready, Kieran?" Even Flurry was interested again as she wandered back over with curiosity.

I felt a bit of nervousness bubbling up inside of me and glanced over at Cadance, who was lost in the choice of whether to stop this before it started or not. However, seeing as I’d like to stop whatever was affecting me as soon as possible, I gave Cadance a reassuring smile and gave him my answer. "Let’s try it." I said with a smirk.

Sunburst smirked back and nodded, leaning forward and flipping a switch as Cadance gritted her teeth. The device hummed to life with a soft, low tune before the screen-like device lit up in front of me. At first, it started off as a bunch of blue lines on a screen, and the device started to get louder, as if it were revving up like an engine. I began to feel some sort of pull from deep within me, leading straight to my horn.

Slowly, the lines on the screen began to form a sort of circle, and after a few moments, the configuration was complete. And for some reason, without any room to argue, my brain knew it was a spell sigil. For that singular moment, I knew how to cast this spell, and I could feel my horn begin to hum to life as it attempted to recreate this spell sigil in reality. I felt completely out of control of my body as it went through these motions.

I tunnel-visioned the sigil, like I was hypnotized. My senses were hyper-focused on the sigil, and for a moment, I thought I could hear the sigil speaking to me. But that sounded like lunacy, even in the moment. But I certainly felt it calling to me, forcing me to cast a spell I didn’t know.

Up until then, Sunburst was seemingly unfazed by what was going on. But from behind the machine, a loud beep sounded, and he looked at the screen. His eyes widened, and his brow furrowed at it. "What’s going on?" Cadance asked worriedly. Her voice was muffled; not only was my hearing getting muffled, but my vision began to get blurry around the edges as well. Making sure that the only thing I could see was the magic symbol.

All of a sudden, something felt wrong, as if I’d failed. My focus on the sigil washed away along with the rest of my senses. The lines forming the sigil on the screen began to warp in my vision, and my head started spinning. It was then that I finally began to notice it…

..the pain.

It was unbearable.

It started as a searing edge that embedded itself deep inside my body. The leylines up to my horn were in pure pain, like barbed wire rubbing the inside of your nerves.

But my body was still not my own; I couldn’t scream or beg for help. So I had to fight through the pain and force my body back into my own control as my breathing became heavy. I panted loudly in panic. "Something is wrong!" Cadance told Sunburst worriedly.

I finally wrenched my vision away from the screen, my body coming back into my control with a loud grunt of effort. Obviously, the first thing that I did was collapse and scream in pain. Even if I wanted to reach up and disconnect myself, I couldn’t think straight enough to do so. And the pain was so suffocating that I immediately lost my ability to vocalize after letting only a moment of screaming out.

I doubled over in pain as all my senses abandoned me. I didn’t know what was happening. Only that the device on my head and my magic were having a fist fight in my body, and my body was losing terribly.

But that second of screaming I released was enough, as Sunburst managed to stop it in an instant, and Cadance ripped the device off my horn. In an instant, the pain in my horn dissipated as if it were never there, and I found myself cradled against something fluffy and soft. 

I could guess that it was Cadance, but I couldn’t see, hear, or smell; I could barely think. It reminded me of my time in the dark void of death. And I knew that I’d begun shivering at that exact thought. And the idea of being alone in that darkness again terrified me.

I gripped Cadance harshly, even as my senses returned to me at a snail’s pace. I began to hear the faint voice of her in my ears: "K…ran!"

"...ieran! Sp…k… me!"

I buried my head in her chest and started crying. I felt her hold onto me even tighter as I mumbled, "I… didn’t like that." Was all I managed to huff out.

She gently stroked the back of my head for a while, and I could certainly feel her rocking me. Which helped a lot to soothe me after that awful experience I’d just gone through. Eventually, voices became more clear, and there were a lot of them. I raised my head to look around, my vision blurry but slowly improving. "What happened?" I said this with deep confusion as everyone was in the room.

Cadance nuzzled me, "It’s okay, it’s okay, I’m here." She reassured me softly.

Once my eyes focused again, I finally saw both Shining and Cadance hovering over my face with intense worry. I stopped gasping for breath as I locked eyes with her. "Cadance?" I asked in confusion.

She breathed a loud sigh of relief and pulled me closer in another tight hug, "Thank Faust… Oh thank you…" She muttered under her breath as she nuzzled me.

"What happened?" I vocalized again, worried. My voice was hoarse. "Everything started to hurt, and I couldn’t see or hear anymore. I lost all my senses." I mumbled as my body shook more.

"Oh honey," Cadance cried as tears dripped down over my shoulder, "it’s okay, you’re okay now. I’ve got you."

My ability to comprehend what had just happened was hazy, sort of like when you just wake from a dream and can only remember certain parts. But all I knew was that there was a lot of pain, and it felt like it lasted for far too long. 

Sunburst stammered panickedly from nearby, "I’m so, so sorry! Terribly sorry!" He apologized loudly, "That was not supposed to happen! I assure you!" He defended.

"Honey, what did you do to Kieran?" I heard Stellar Flare reprimand him,which sparked an argument with his parents.

I felt a small hoof on my shoulder and glanced over, still only barely getting back to my senses. It was Flurry. She had an intensely worried look. "Kieran? Are you okay?"

I gave her a short smile, "I think so, surprisingly." I replied with a short giggle.

Those words must’ve soothed Cadance a little too, and she breathed a sigh of relief before loosening her grip on me. She shot Sunburst a furious glare that even terrified me. "What happened, Sunburst? He was screaming in pain!" She reminded him angrily as she shielded me protectively with her wings.

I hummed nervously, "I told him to do it; don’t yell at him, please, Cadance. He’s just trying to help." I said quietly before rubbing my head to ease the dizziness.

Shining nodded in agreement with me as he stood up and looked between both parties. "Everyone, please take a deep breath."

Cadance calmed herself with a small sigh and gave a more understanding yet unhappy look. "What did your machine do to Kieran?" She asked.

Sunburst sighed, "In a regular foal," He paused to think, "That machine would’ve simply made him cast a small spell that lowers the temperature in the room a bit."

Stellar Flare glared at her son. "That doesn’t look like a weather spell to me, Sunburst," she huffed at him.

He sighed, "I know. The warning on the screen informed me that the spell was failing, right before his horn acted on its own and caused him immense pain."

Shining sighed greatly as he rubbed his temple. "Okay, so, what does that mean?"

"I have… no idea." Sunburst replied truthfully.

The room sat in silence for a long time. The experiment had gone wrong, and the only one who understood it didn’t even know what had happened. The mood in the room shifted from one of anger to pure confusion as everyone thought to themselves.

Sunburst finally walked over and bowed his head greatly, "Please forgive me. If I had known-"

"Forgiven." I told him quickly, "Just never let that thing into my head again." I replied with a worried look.

He looked up at me and nodded before looking up a bit farther into Cadance’s face. It was hard to read, but after a moment of deliberation, she sighed and leaned forward to nuzzle Sunburst. "I trust that you know what you’re doing and that you wouldn’t have hurt Kieran purposefully." She retracted a bit and looked into his eyes. "Just please… figure out what is wrong with all the data you collected."

Sunburst nodded with a small smile, "The positive of this is that the machine managed to collect a bunch of data I don’t quite understand. I’ll take the data straight to Starlight and Twilight. I’m sure they could help substantially in the search for answers."

There was another long silence as Cadance continued to soothe me. Even if she didn’t need to, I still felt very appreciative of her calming touch. At some point Stellar forced Sunburst and her husband out of the room, and it was just us four.

Shining sat back down and gave me a sympathetic look, "Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out, buddy." He said this before stroking my head.

Flurry stood up and looked at me, "You are okay now, right?"

I smirked. "For a dead kid? Yeah, feeling okay."

She snorted and held her head up higher. "Good, no minion of mine would be taken out that easily."

"Since when did I become your minion?" I asked with a raised brow.

"Just now," she said with a wide smile.

Cadance sighed with a short laugh, "Alright, Flurry. That’s enough."

My stomach growled, and I looked up sheepishly and asked, "Can we… eat something?"

All three of them laughed, and Shining hummed, "How about lunch in the garden?" He asked as he stood up.

Flurry jumped around excitedly, "Oh yes! Pretty pretty please, momma?" 

Cadance looked between us and nodded, "Okay." Then she gave me a stern look, "But I’m having a nurse check on you before you go."

I waved my hoof, "Fine with me."

Flurry hopped up onto Shining’s back excitedly and began pulling on his ears. "H-Hey! Quit that." Shining said with a chuckle. Shining and her got into a short fight as he tried to pull her off his head.

Cadance giggled and turned her attention back down to me, pulling me up close to her barrel in yet another hug. "I love you, Kieran."

My ears perked up as I looked at her in surprise. "H-Huh? Where’d… that come from?" I asked with confusion.

She smiled and booped my muzzle, "From me, just because I wanted you to know." She rested her head over mine, and I relaxed in the embrace. I guess it wasn’t a stretch for the alicorn of love to say they loved you. But it felt a bit more personal than that, and a warm feeling rose in my chest.

"Oh," I muttered as I sat there both awkwardly and also happy, "Th-Thank you. I.. lo-"

"Come on, momma! Hurry up!" Flurry shouted from atop Shining, who had relented to her game and allowed her to stay up on his back.

Cadance giggled and levitated me onto her back as well. "We’re coming." She replied calmly.



Shining and his family joined back up with us for the picnic. And the nurse found nothing wrong after a quick checkup. She was more interested in why I’d gone to see her three times in a span of barely two days.

But I guess magic is completely off the table for now. Enough to the point that Cadance and Sunburst essentially grounded me from it. No grabbing or anything was going to be awful, but at least I had help.

Magic sounded cool and looked cool, and I really wouldn’t mind being a mage someday. In fact, my fascination had only grown during the entire experience. However, I’d have to wait on that since magic didn’t seem to like me. I sighed inwardly as I thought back on the sigil and the sudden, piercing pain that shot through me.

‘But why don’t you like me?’ I thought to myself angrily, staring up at my horn with a huff.