Clueless as he was at teaching, they had to at least give him some credit for perseverance.
“You just have to sorta feel for it, like reaching out with your hooves, but… well… without your hooves.”
Emerald Rainbow pointed her horn directly at the rock, but nothing happened. She sighed.
“It's nice that you're trying to teach me, but I'm starting to think I don't have any magic.”
“Come on, everypony’s got some magic. It's in your blood.”
“Well maybe I've got the wrong sort of blood. Besides, they can't do magic.”
Obsidian turned to look in the direction she was pointing. “Well yeah, but they're earth ponies and a pegasus. Their magic's different from the rest of us.”
“Well maybe mine’s just different too.”
That was when they heard somepony trotting up from behind. Obsidian twisted his head around to see who it was.
“Hey Thor.”
“Hey kids. And, I guess you must be the Emerald Rainbow some of the others here have been talking about.” He stuck out a hoof as she nodded. “Thorite Stone, of Canterlot.”
She shook his hoof, silently wishing he could have been from anywhere else.
“So,” Obsidian asked, “what are you doing over here?”
“Zirc said he wanted all the kids together over by the pond. He said he had something fun planned.”
“Hey kids, you want to see a fun trick?”
All of them looked up at Zircon, who already had his horn glowing.
“Sure!”
Zircon touched his horn to the water in the pond and lifted it again, picking up a golf ball sized sphere with the tip.
“Did any of your dads ever tell you about the Great Zap Wars from when we were kids?”
“Yeah!” Feldspar excitedly hovered up to eye level with him. “He said he used to launch blobs of water up over the roof so nopony could get him back.”
“Oh, he didn't just do that. We called him ‘Icepony’ for a reason. He chilled the water just before launching it. But that's not the point. Did he tell you how often he missed his shots?”
Obsidian and Feldspar both shook their heads, while Emerald Rainbow and the other cousins looked up eagerly for an answer.
“Of course not.” He chuckled slightly, lowering himself into an attack stance until he was about eye level with the foals.
“You know what they called me during the Zap Wars?”
They all shook their heads.
“‘Sniper.’”
ZAP!
“It's a nice place. Everypony’s friendly, and there's a certain charm to rural communities that you just can't find in the…
“YAAAGH!”
Gneiss turned to her husband, alarmed.
“Dear!? What just happened?”
“Somepony just shot me in the plot with a…” He turned around to see his older brother and most of the foals looking away and whistling innocently.
“I knew it. I knew he'd start it early anyway.”
He put on an aggressive tone while trying to suppress a grin. “You want to declare war, Snipes? Here comes the Icepony!”
As he spoke, a volley of water blobs launched straight up from the fountain behind him. Zirc turned his head to the kids in fake terror.
“Run!”
They all scattered just before twenty blobs of water rained down on where they had been standing.
Gneiss tapped her husband on the shoulder.
“Did you really have to do that?”
“It was Cor’s idea, not mine. It's just a bit of fun, and he thinks it'll help expose our mystery filly. Besides, it's a great way for the kids to practice magic. The water won't hurt them, and it’ll let them get creative with new tricks.”
That was when another blob stung his backside.
“Yike…” He glared in the direction from which it had come. “Like electrifying the water to make it sting more.”
The kids regrouped behind the bushes with their uncle, trying to laugh as quietly as possible and failing at the “quietly” part.
“See, like I said. Missed almost every shot.”
That was when they were interrupted by another voice from behind.
“What are you all doing?”
Slowly, they all turned around to see another unicorn lowering his eyes at them.
“Corundum! How are you doing? We're just admiring the bushes here, right kids?”
All the foals nodded in agreement.
“You decided to start a zap war in my town?”
“Well, that all depends on your point of view…”
“Zirc, if you want a zap war at my place, you'd better be prepared” -a long rope of water wound its way around him, forming a complex weave that surrounded him- “for the Snake King!”
Everypony scattered, barely avoiding the torrent that followed.
The serpent of levitating water wrapped around Zircon and forced him down to the ground.
“Kids! Help! Quick, soak him back!”
Emerald Rainbow bolted through the park, laughing as all the cousins fired off shots at each other.
As the kids got pulled into the war, the parents who had instigated it surreptitiously backed off, amusedly watching them from the sidelines. Several of the foals had tried to imitate their parent's styles at first, but they soon ended up with rather distinct styles of their own.
Cor’s kids tried to mimic his signature “Snake King” attack, but they weren't nearly skilled enough yet in their telekinesis, so they opted instead to fire barrages of water in a manner somewhat between Zirc’s sniper shots and Quartz's mortar launches. They had quickly developed quite a bit of proficiency in time-on-target firing tactics.
Gold and Silver had found a hose and were spraying everypony who came within range while Rose Quartz defended them with flickering shields.
Feldspar had gathered enough mist from around the pond to form a small cloud and was sitting on top propelling it around the park while Obsidian and Thorite sat up with her, Thorite using his magic to water bomb everypony below, and Obsidian using his magic to keep his older cousin from falling through the cloud.
Emerald herself had taken to dodging the attacks with the younger foals who had wanted to join but didn't have enough skill yet to fight back.
It was a blast!
Then, the inevitable occurred.
One of the family's younger cousins pointed a hoof towards the sky.
“INCOMING!!!”
Before she could react, she, everypony, and everything else around her was pelted with a barrage of water blobs from Corundum’s foals. As she stood back up, the pony who had tried to warn her tilted her head.
“You okay?”
“Yeah. Just a bit soaked. You?”
“I'm fine.” She stepped closer. “ Are you sure you're okay?”
“Yeah, I'm sure. Why?”
“You're not green anymore.”