“Concentrate!” Zecora called to Starlight who was panting in exertion as she tried to pull leaves off of trees in her magic and keep them from falling to the ground. It was not a test of her levitation ability; instead it was a focus task. Levitating the leaves as a large heap would have been simple, over the past week she had levitated far heavier things than leaves. However, the leaves all spread out around her, swirling in the wind, focusing on each was a very hard task, exponentially so because she could not hold all of them in her magical aura at once. She had to toss each one up as it threatened to hit the ground.
“You must combine their natural order with one you create!” Zecora continued as she watched from the edge of the clearing. It was off in the woods, about five minutes from camp. While Starlight was welcomed at the camp, her training in magic would have made them nervous. So, she and Zecora had been training in this clearing, and other places surrounding the camp, like a stream that followed nearby and also in dense forest to strain Starlight’s perceptive skills.
“AH!!” She cried in frustration as a leaf hit the ground. Her concentration was broken and she missed even more leaves as they fell to the forest floor. She quickly tried to pick them all up in her magic and toss them at once, but along with the others she was currently holding, it was too many objects for her to handle. Suddenly, without warning, her horn sputtered and died and all the leaves crashed to the ground, devoid of the dark purple aura that had been surrounding them.
Starlight stared at the ground. She hated failure. Zecora came from her spot outside the clearing.
“That was very good, your concentration has improved greatly. That was a great deal of items for your magic to carry,” Zecora nodded approvingly. “But, there is still much room to improve, now go again; this time listen to how the leaves move.”
How the leaves move? Starlight thought. They move like leaves! What is this supposed to tell me? She frowned, but none the less powered up her horn to go again. She felt a rise in the wind and began pulling leaves up off the ground and off nearby trees and watched them swirling around her. She pulled in with her magic, to make sure none of them floated out of the clearing and then began the arduous task of catching each one as it plunged towards the ground.
---
Silver Rain bent down, her nose almost touching the ground. The trail she was following was a few days old and was beginning to fade. She cursed. She should have tried to follow them sooner, but up until today she had woken up, ever day since the struggle at the cottage, with a pounding headache. Today, it was still there, but not as bad as before, besides, she could feel a storm brewing and with the rain it would undoubtedly bring, the tracks could be completely gone.
At least they were deep. Rainbow Dash must have been carrying the other pegasus, since her tracks were sunk in and every step had made its mark. The smaller set of the filly followed next to it, but those were even harder to see than Rainbow Dash’s hoofprints. She exhaled at the ground, an unfortunate cloud of dust rising up at her breath.
“Gak!” She spluttered as it hit her in the face. Silver scowled and wiped her muzzle with a hoof. She rolled her eyes at her own stupidity and continued walking, her eyes never leaving the trail. She had been following their tracks for almost a full day now, only having slept for a few hours in between. They couldn’t have gotten far. They had no supplies and were carrying a pegasus who should be close to death. Silver wouldn’t be surprised if her cut had already killed the yellow pegasus.
A rustling noise sounded in the brush overhead. She turned her head up to look, but saw nothing. As she did, her hoof snagged on a root, it snapped and she went sprawling. In seconds she was up on her hooves again. The forest was silent for a fraction of a second and her ears flicked back and forth, trying to hear the rustling again.
She didn’t hear it, but she did hear something else, and even before her conscious mind could piece together what was happening, her hoof had already captured the source of the whooshing noise she had heard. She stared at the arrow she now clutched. She snarled and in one motion dropped the arrow, pulled her knife out of its sheath on her leg, and threw it; spinning into the woods from the direction she had heard the sound.
The ‘thunk!’ as it made contact was followed swiftly by a loud crashing noise. Silver allowed herself a small grim smile as she crept towards whatever had been knocked down.
To her astonishment, lying still on the forest floor was an unconscious pony. She looked him over, he was breathing, but her knife had connected hilt first with his temple. She arched an eyebrow, not surprised or proud that her shot had been perfectly on target. There was one thing that troubled her though, what was he doing out here in the middle of the Everfree forest? She knelt down beside him, and noticed that squished underneath him was a small side-saddle bag.
She grabbed it and unceremoniously deposited its contents onto the ground. A water flask, a torch, a few food items, more arrows, all of it she tossed to the side. Then she struck gold. A small folded piece of paper. She unfolded it and was not surprised to find a map.
It displayed the region of the Everfree they were in, but more importantly, there was a large circle drawn around a seemingly unremarkable part of the forest. She looked closer and noticed an ‘x’ marked on one side. She tilted her head in confusion. She wondered what it meant.
She shrugged, he was probably just a camper; admittedly an odd one to be prancing around the deep parts of the Everfree, but probably a camper no less. Other than the arrows, she had no reason to suspect anything else. Silver looked down at the lump that was forming where her knife had hit him. He would be out for a couple hours. He wouldn’t be any trouble for her. She absentmindedly hoped he wouldn’t get eaten, but she didn’t let it bother her and continued following the tracks.
She came to a bend in the path just a few minutes later. Sticking in a tree next to it was an arrow, almost identical to the one that she had encountered. She frowned. Either this pony was shooting arrows all over the place, or there were more where he came from. Silver hesitated a moment, but figuring there was nothing else she could do other than to stay on her guard, she moved forward.
Then she noticed something new about the tracks. Another set of adult tracks had joined Rainbow Dash and the filly’s. She looked hard at these new tracks, small and deep. She looked back at Rainbows, hers were just as deep as they had been. That meant she must have still been carrying the yellow pegasus. This new addition was an earth pony. Silver felt a small sliver of apprehension.
Not that she was worried or anything, but the more ponies Rainbow Dash was with, the harder her job became. It would be almost impossible to get the unicorn filly if these new tracks were on Rainbow Dash’s side, which it seemed they were. There was no sign of a scuffle when they met up, other than the earth pony tracks indicating that he or she had fallen before they joined the other tracks.
“Listen to how the leaves move.”
Silver stopped. She had heard a voice. She turned. It was faint, but she knew it was coming from the left of her. Silver looked down at the tracks and then up at the sky. She had time to find out where the voice was coming from and finish tracking before the storm set it. She listened hard, but no other sounds came. She frowned, but nonetheless went off in search of the voice.
---
Starlight huffed as more leaves threatened to hit the ground. She had managed to keep of them up this time, but she was getting tired. Zecora had told her the point of the exercise was to work on her magical focus, so she had assumed that meant that she had to use her magic on each leaf individually.
But what if there was a way to control all of them at once with just one spell? Instead of dividing my magic and losing my focus on all the leaves one by one as they fall could I come up with a way to do it together? She frowned, a leaf slipping on the edge. With a heroic effort she pulled it back in and it resumed its swirling. At the same time as she was doing this, she was still thinking, It wouldn’t just be a levitation spell, it would be like a stop spell, or a hold spell.
She opened her eyes to tiny slits, looking at the clearing around her. She took in everything from the edges of each of the trees to the individual leaves swirling around her.
I can’t just stop the leaves, they aren’t really moving. The wind and air and trees are moving them. I need to stop everything in the system. Like a particle stopper. A stop motion spell.
Starlight bit her lip, more leaves threatening to hit the ground. She gasped and thrust them up, her mind going back to her previous thinking. She had never done a ‘spell’ before. Levitation was something that came naturally to unicorns, they just did it, like a pegasus being able to fly; sure there was finer points to learn, and many ways to do it, but almost all pegasi could fly from the time they were babies. And unicorns could levitate things.
She had done other magic, but when she did it, it was all instinct, she just thought about what she wanted her magical energy to do and it did it. This was different though, she needed to form her magic and shape it into the right pattern. She didn’t know how she knew this, but she could feel it was right. She had heard of unicorns using spells and spell books to cast magic in the past. She had always wanted to get her hooves on something like that, but never had.
This feeling of what she had to do was a certainty. There was no doubt in Starlight’s mind that a proper spell that shaped her magic would do the trick. She concentrated hard and dug her hooves into the ground. She wasn’t sure how it was going to happen, but she figured that she would find out along the way. Zecora could help her with magic, but in the end, she knew that she would really have to do it on her own.
Stop... She thought into the clearing around her. Her mind zoomed in on the trees dropping more leaves. Stop, next the wind blowing past her and ruffling her mane. Stop. The very air itself Stop! and finally the leaves, darting closer and closer to the ground as her concentration shifted from levitating them to the spell she was shaping. STOP!
Her focus never faltered, never slipped. Suddenly, as if a switch had been thrown it her mind, it all clicked into place. The words and feelings she had been pouring into her magic stopped being words, changing almost instantaneously to figures and matrices of pure magical energy. Starlight’s magic soared, she could see the spell laid out before her, and she could feel the energy she needed to put it into place. It was as if her mind had translated the words into a new language, the language of magic.
She opened her eyes wide and pushed just the tiniest bit harder. It was all she had. If this didn’t work, nothing would. Then as if a something had snapped, her magic flowed out like water burst from a dam. A brilliant flash of light that transformed from blinding white to her own dark purple washed over the clearing. Starlight closed her eyes against the glare, but didn’t flinch.
She inhaled and opened her eyes. Everything in the clearing was still. A dark purple aura surrounded it. On the outside, Zecora looked in, her form shifting and wavering as if she was looking in through warped glass. Nothing moved inside though. It was perfectly still and silent. Every leave was suspended where it had been when the spell had been cast.
Even the air was frozen still. Starlight breathed in and out, her breath the only thing disturbing the stillness. As soon as it hit the rest of the air though, the movement from her breathing halted and resumed its static state. She didn’t even move, she felt like if she took one step forward, she would break some unspoken rule that had been created.
A leaf was floating just above her head. The little bit of sunlight that filtered through one side of the clearing shown perfectly through its veins. The other side was shadowed and that darkness made the leaf a beautiful dark green. Starlight reached up with her nose and touched the very edge of the leaf with the tip of her muzzle.
With a cracking sound that Starlight was sure only she heard, every leaf in the clearing crashed to the ground and the wind whipped with renewed frenzy as if it was making up for being still before. Zecora walked into the clearing, an unreadable look upon her face.
“That spell had more talent than to me you have ever shown. The lesson of control is one that is no longer yours to own. You have done well and your magic has grown.” Zecora smiled. “Tomorrow we will move on to the last of my training. You have learned well and there is little that I can teach you remaining.”
Starlight buzzed with excitement. She couldn’t believe it worked. She wanted to try new spells now, harder spells. She idly wondered what the last of Zecora’s lessons would be. They had been working hard for only a week, but Starlight’s magic had improved considerably. Now she had the basics under her; controlling when and where her magic happened and now exactly what she wanted to do with it. She scrunched her nose. She wanted a spell book so badly! Reading was one of her favorite things to do and she knew reading about magic would be amazing.
She couldn’t even let that dampen her good mood, however. She bounced happily as she and Zecora walked companionably back to camp. Zecora had made it down the path a little further than her because she was so distractedly happy. The zebra turned around,
“Little filly, what are you doing? We must get back to camp; there is a storm a’ brewing.” Zecora said and continued. Starlight paused for a moment more and than ran a little to catch up. She looked up at the sky. Sure enough, there were dark clouds moving ominously across the sky. It was more than a little unsettling to see them moving all by themselves, regardless of any pegasi help.
Zecora sniffed the air and frowned. “I do not know what this storm will bring; it is an unpredictable and wild thing.” She said and moved faster. It wasn’t long after that when Starlight and Zecora reached the camp wall. Zecora wasted no time and put her hoof to the handle.
The wall slid open and Zecora went right inside. Starlight couldn’t help but turn and look at the clouds moving in. They were very dark.
---
Silver perched on a branch outside a clearing. It had not taken her long to find the source of the voice. An old zebra mare on the side of the clearing opposite her was instructing a young filly who was practicing in the clearing. It was much to Silver’s surprise when she saw the young filly in question.
A small filly with a dark purple coat and white-yellow mane. Silver stored those features in her memory, she didn’t have picture after all. The most noticeable feature however, was the horn on the filly’s head. Silver smiled. She was rewarded for her instincts to follow the voice. This was the filly she had been searching for. The last unicorn.
Silver had been rather young when the Uprising began, but she was no stranger to dealing with unicorns, this one would be no different. She would have to wait though. She didn’t know anything about this zebra and attacking before she knew all the assets of her opponent was the mistake she had made with Rainbow Dash.
She would just wait and follow them; hopefully they would lead back to Rainbow Dash herself. Silver settled into wait. She watched as the unicorn trained. It was clear that she was being instructed in magic. Another fact that would make Silver’s job harder, but she was not overly concerned. She had a magic suppressor in her bag if she needed it.
It was only basic levitation after all. Any unicorn baby could have done that. Silver yawned and looked up at the sky. The storm she had felt, back when the sky was still clear and the wind calm, was now approaching. Dark storm clouds with lightning flickering in between were bearing down on their part of the Everfree. They still were a ways off for now though.
She turned her attention back to clearing in time to see the filly standing perfectly still, her horn’s glow darkening and intensifying. Silver leaned forward in apprehension. If this unicorn had magic talent, it would seriously surprise her. The young filly would have had no teaching, no magic to observe, nothing explained, and certainly no magic texts to consult. By all reasons, her magic should be very minimal.
Especially since magic spawned more magic. The more magical energy around a unicorn, the stronger their magic could be. Since almost all magic and magical items had been destroyed there was little natural magic left to draw from. Silver made it a point to be well informed. She liked to know exactly what she was up against and what weaknesses she could exploit. This young filly was far from the first unicorn she had targeted.
Then, as Silver turned her focus back on the filly, a blinding white light exploded from her horn. It raced past Silver, nearly blowing her out of the tree she was hidden in. She managed to hold on, but she was momentarily blinded. When the dark spots finally disappeared from her vision, she stared at the clearing in astonishment.
Everything was still. It had all stopped moving. Silver’s mind raced with the implications of what she had just seen. It meant that this unicorn was nothing to sniff at. She was, apparently, a very magically inclined young pony. For her to do that kind of spell at the age she was; it was nothing short of amazing. Silver frowned. She needed to nip this in the bud.
She softly touched the knife in its sheath. She could end this all right now. The unicorn would be dead, and the last bit of magic extinguished, exactly what the Guard wanted. Silver was a firm believer that magic was the root of all evil in the world. She could end this young unicorn’s existence and all of it would be gone. It would be so easy for Silver to do it. She pulled the knife out of its sheath.
She huffed and slid it back in. Her orders were to bring the unicorn back alive. No killing unless by orders. It was part of her moral code. She hated these missions, at least when she wasn’t in them, because during the event, it was exhilarating. However, she had rules for herself. If she had to be a killer, she would at least still try to be a good pony. And that meant no killing. She already felt bad about hurting the yellow pegasus.
Silver would wait. She would bring the unicorn back alive, she would not kill a child either. As she thought this over, the zebra and the unicorn had left the clearing. She followed them, watching from up in the trees. It was not more than five minutes before they reached a seemingly impassable wall of foliage.
Much to Silver’s amazement, the zebra walked up and put her hoof into the plants, allowing a section to open like a door. She and the filly walked in and it shut behind them. Silver flapped her wings and glided down to the ground, looking at the wall. She was puzzled.
However, being the pegasus she was, she simply flew up to the top of the wall and just barely peaked her head over. Inside there were dozens of ponies milling around, apparently preparing for the coming storm. Silver’s eyes widened as she struggled to grasp the ramifications of something like this. A camp of ponies completely out of the control of the Guard, who were sheltering a unicorn no less! Silver’s job had just become exponentially more complicated.
On an instinct, she reached into her pouch and pulled out the map she had found earlier. She studied it for a moment, lining up the directions, looking for landmarks. She twisted it and her suspicions were confirmed. The place the zebra had opened was exactly where the 'x' was on the map. The circle must be the wall surrounding the encampment. She put a hoof to her forehead. This place was huge. There were tons of ponies, and they were organized too. Her head jumped back to the arrow shooting pony she had encountered. A sentry! She realized. They were ready for attack from any pony.
With a powerful flap of her wings she soared up above the tree-tops and away from the camp. She couldn’t handle this job alone. She would need reinforcements from the Guard. She flew as high as she could, the winds from the storm already blowing around and creating unpredictable air currents. She reached into her pack and pulled out a small round cylinder and a match. A signal flare.
Far in the distance, she could just make out the tall buildings in the center of the City; especially the dark form of the Guard building. She hoped they were on lookout since they should have received word of her tree to the Everfree. Silver struck the match against her pack and lit the fuse, throwing the flare high into the air.
It exploded in a burst of red. She had several flares at her disposal, green meant she had found her target and was either returning with it, or it was dead. Yellow meant she was injured and would need assistance to get back to HQ; she had never used a yellow, but her stash of greens had to be replaced constantly.
She had also never used a red before. Red meant that she had encountered an emergency and needed reinforcement; usually it called an entire squad of Guard ponies. She squinted towards the City, waiting for the reply. She didn’t have to wait long. Within a minute a red flare shot up from the Guard HQ, followed by a blue. The red meant they understood her flare and were repeating it. The blue meant they were on their way.