"Star!! What did you do?!" Shadow shouts worriedly.
"That wasn't me!" I shout back. The room is now full of dust and splinters are lodged in the front of my barrier. It couldn't have been me. Were that some kind of magical backlash or fail, the barrier would have faded. That, and the outline of a body on my barrier told me there was no way it was my doing.
"Oh my gosh, I am soooo sorry!" The body on my barrier apologizes, totally unfazed despite the impact. It was femenine, a mare had just blown up our wall somehow.
"Rainbow Dash?! Is that you?" Shadow asks in surprise as the mare peels herself off of my shield.
"Yeah, sorry. I was flying and some stupid bug hit my eye." The dust slowly settles and I drop the magic quickly. The splinters fall to the floor and click against it.
"M-my house! Oh my gosh, I... I... Oh geez."
"Uhhh... I'll pay for that." The 'Rainbow Dash' offers. With the dust level lowered to the point of faint visibility, I can see some of her features. She's a cyan pegasus with a rainbow colored mane and tail. Her hair appears to be carefully styled to look unstyled. Were it truly unstyled though, the hair colors would mix. It gave her the impression of trying to look like she didn't care how she looked. It seemed a bit pointless to me, but it wasn't my mane after all.
"Oh my gosh, my house..." Shadow mumbles weakly. "This'll take days to repair... Where am I supposed to stay?"
"Uhh... uhhh." The mare begins to akwardly turn side-to-side, as if an answer would jump out at her. Instead, she saw me. "Waah! Shadow, there's a monster in your house!" She cries, leaping in front of him protectively. "Run, I'll hold him off!" I hold up my hooves in a display of peace.
"Actually, I'm his friend. I'm the one responsible for the magic wall that cushioned your impact."
"You aren't fooling me! Shadow! I said run!"
*sigh* "Rainbow, he's telling the truth. This is my friend, Star. He's no monster, and I'd like to point out that my house is missing a wall. Can we focus on that for a bit?"
"B.... but... Look at him!" Rainbow Dash protests, waving toward me wildly. Then she seems to look at me more intently herself. "Actually... He's kinda shrimpy..." She notices.
"Hey..." I warn.
"He's all thin and scrawny..."
"You're one to talk there tiny!" I counter, pointing out her slim build and comparitively short body.
"Hey! Watch it! You're talking to the fastest pegasus in Equestria! I'm not small, I'm lean!" She takes an aggressive step towards me and I match it by lighting one of my hooves with magic aura.
"Hey, don't you come at me! You're the one that just broke through our wall and proceeded to insult me!"
"Both of you, shut up!" Shadow shouts, stepping inbetween us. He turns to me. "Star, threatening ponies with magic is not going to make you any friends!" As he finishes, he turns to Rainbow Dash. "As for you, you can't just break through my house and insult my friend!" His fierce expression breaks down a bit. "I mean... could you be a little nicer? Please?" Rainbow Dash's aggressive stance falters and deflates into an akward stand. She starts kicking the ground nervously.
"Right, sorry." She mutters. I cross my arms over my chest defiantly.
"Now, I can't afford to fix thi--"
"I said I'd pay for it!" Rainbow Dash interrupts.
"Got it, but even then, Star and I can't stay in a house that's missing a wall." The colorful home-wrecker seems to think for a moment. I could only imagine how much pain it was causing her. It struck me suddenly that I didn't like her. At all.
"Well, you could stay at my house." She offers to Shadow.
"Isn't it made of clouds?"
"Yeah."
"I don't think I can walk on clouds." I interject. Rainbow Dash glares at me.
"Well it's a good thing I wasn't offering you!"
"Well then where the heck am I supposed to sleep?"
"Not my problem, I'm just taking care of my friend!"
"Uhhh... Twilight seemed to like you a bit. Maybe we can ask her really nicely?" Shadow offers.
"You said 'you'. Aren't you coming with me?" I ask worriedly.
"Uhh... ehm... I'd... I'd like to, but..."
"But he's going with a real friend." Rainbow Dash states smugly. I scowl at her. I really wasn't liking her.
"Shadow..." I mumble.
"T-that's not true... but I would like to go with her." He mutters lowly. I nod slowly.
"Ok. Ok, I understand."
"Thank you... I'll go talk with Twilight real quick. Go hide in my room, that way no passing ponies see you." I numbly trot to his room, a little upset and confused as to why he was choosing that rude, mean, destroyer of property over me. I figure there had to be some important reason that I just wasn't seeing. Nonetheless, I couldn't rid myself of a small feeling of betrayal. In an effort to brighten myself up, I remind myself that I might be going to Twilight's house. She had been the one that was encouraging the practice of magic. I'd get to finally use some of my knowlege there. With my hurt forgotten, I fill with a sort of eager nervousness and pull my spell book back out. Almost as if I were studying for a life-defining test, I read as quickly as I can while commiting it to memory. It feels like no time has passed at all before Shadow returns to the house accompanied by two other ponies.
"So you're sure you don't mind?" Shadow asks skeptically.
"Of course not, anything for a fellow magic lover!" Twilight's voice assures happily.
"I dunno Twilight, I don't like that... thing." The voice of Rainbow Dash, who I was quickly associating with the spawn of Discord, says cautiously.
"Hey, watch it! He's still my friend!" Shadow protests. Twilight trots into Shadow's room.
"Hey Star, how are you?" She asks sweetly. I had no idea why this particular mare was so nice to me, but I liked her for it. Especially since it was just enough kindness, unlike Fluttershy, who had gone just a tad overboard.
"I'm about as well as somepony can be when a rude mare crashes through your wall."
"Hee hee, fair enough. Look, Rainbow's being a bit stubborn right now, but deep down I know she's sorry for what she did, ok?" I could feel a bit of my hatred for the prismatic pegasus diminish.
"Ok. So, I guess Shadow spoke to you about me already?"
"He sure did, and I'd be happy to let you stay for a bit. We can get to that magic practice I was asking about, if you'd like." I return the lavender mare's kind smile.
"I'd love to, but are we going to get to your house without being seen?"
"Easy. Hold onto me and I'll use a few teleportation spells to get us there largely undetected."
"You can do that? Just teleport us both?"
"Yup."
"I have so much to learn." I mumble in awe. Twilight turns her back to me and motions for me to grab onto her.
"Well, let's get started then!" She says excitedly. I place my hoof in the middle of her back, and suddenly a sucessive burst of flashes fly by us. After a few seconds of disorientation, I manage to steady myself and look at my new surroundings. I'm in a building with a strangely grained floor and walls that appear to be undivided. Not only that, but there is a staircase that looks almost carved out of the wall. I barely take the time to think about any of that or what it could mean because...
"BOOKS!" I cry, arriving at the shelves faster than a wonderbolt. In the same moment I begin randomly pulling a few off of the shelves and carry them to a corner. I begin examining them immediately. "Read it, read it, ohhh, that's neat." I pick one of the books from the stack and shove the rest to the side. As I open it though, it's magically taken from my hooves by a pinkish-purple aura.
"As much as I love reading too, we're supposed to practice magic, remember?" She gently reminds me as she re-shelves the book. I cross my forelegs poutily.
"All right..."
"Now, come stand next to me." She orders as she levitates a table from the center of the room to the side. I stand up dutifully and trot over to her. "Ok, remind me what spells you can perform?"
"Basic levitation and protective barriers one and two."
"Two? I thought you said you only knew a really small and weak one."
"Well... I maaaay have practiced the second on at Shadow's place." I roll my eyes up to the ceiling and try to look innocent.
"As much as I admire the desire to learn and grow better, you should have followed Shadow's rules." She ridicules lightly. "Now, how did the spell work?"
"Pretty well. It protected me from the rainbow mare that divebombed into our house and nearly hit me."
"Really? Did it hold up well? Did anything seem strange about it to you?"
"Well, now that you mention it... Rainbow Dash had to almost... peel herself off of the barrier." Twilight's face scrunches up in a displeased manner.
"That's not good."
"How so?"
"Well, let me show you." She steps away from me and ignites her horn with a pinkish aura. Suddenly, a wall of pinkish light flies up between us. "This is a correct barrier." She announces as she taps on it with a forehoof. It clicks in a glass-like fashion against her hoof.
"Ok, now what did I make?"
"Well, while making the barrier, you might have been a little distracted. Because of that, you made it incorrectly. Allow me to demonstrate." Twilight stares at me intensely for a bit, and her barrier seems to waver. "This is what you made." She places her hoof against it and pulls it away with a slight sucking sound. The shield is sticky.
"Well, it protected me from the impact, so how does it matter if it's sticky?" I ask slightly irritatedly. The mare's obvious show of superior ability was making me a bit jealous.
"I'm about to show you. Now, when struck at high speeds by blunt objects..." Twilight punches the barrier. It doesn't budge, but I can't help but feel it was more due to her... not physically intimidating body structure than the actual barrier. "However, if one were to simply apply a gentler effort..." Twilight presses against the barrier, and she slowly slips through it with ease, placing her right below me.
"Alright, I see your point. However, I don't think my enemies would try to slowly walk through my shield."
"You have a good point, but this weakened barrier has one more drawback." Twilight's horn flares again and a pinkish sword comes to life in front of her face. With a twirl and a slash, she slices cleanly through the barrier and it dissolves into thin air.
"... Oh. Well, I see your point." I pause. "Did I just pun?"
"Hee hee, good one." Twilight giggles a little. "Anyway, try making another barrier. This time, I want you to focus entirely on making it. Nothing else." I close my eyes obediently and focus all of my thoughts into making the wall of energy. As soon as I'm sure all of my thoughts are on making it, I let the magic flow and will the barrier into being.
"Did I do it?" I ask without opening my eyes.
"Well, you made a barrier, yes." Twilight says. I open my eyes to see a dark blue wall in front of me. "Now to see if it's properly made..." She trots over to it and peers at it closely. Without warning, she flips her magic sword around and stabs my shield, shattering it into tiny pieces that fade instantly.
"Why did you break it?!"
"To test it."
"You could've knocked on it or something!"
"Well this was more of a two part test. Part one was for the barrier, part two was to see your strength as a spell caster."
"... How did that accomplish testing my strength?"
"Well, obviously I broke your shield, but in the process my sword broke at least a little. By seeing how much it broke, we can tell how strong you are."
"Oh. Well, what's the result?" Twilight brings the blade to her face.
"Let's se--" Twilight stops short. The blade is about 1/3 of the way broken, leaving it blunt and scarred with cracks the rest of the way through it. "Oh my..."
"What? Did I fail?"
"Star... a level two barrier should have barely cracked this thing. Maybe chipped it. This... is a very good sign!"
"It is?"
"Yes! It means you have the capability to be very powerful."
"As strong as you?" I ask hopefully. Twilight seems to think for a moment.
"Weeeell, maybe not that powerful. You could probably get close."
"...That kinda sucks. Well, can I learn that sword spell?"
"Well, I don't see why not. Ok, stand right next to me." I step to Twilight and stand just to her right. "Ok now, this is a bit different from the spells you know. Instead of using gentler, more defensive thoughts to use this spell, you'll be using aggression."
"Aggression? Really?"
"Hee hee, yes. We'll be using aggression to make the sword." She says sarcastically. I roll my eyes.
"Ok, I got this." I close my eyes and focus on my earlier jealousy. It had made me a bit angry, so I figure it would work. I began to feel the emotion start to flow, and with a quick burst of magic, I summoned the sword into existance. I opened my eyes to see a sword that looked similar to Twilight's but with a wider blade base. It was dark blue and seemed to be pretty solid. "Ha! First try!" I cry victoriously, throwing my hooves up in celebration. The sword waves in response, and the narrow tip wobbles before going totally limp.
"Maybe not quite yet..." Twilight tries to say with a straight face, despite the obvious laughter welling up inside her.
I guess I really did still have a lot to learn.