//------------------------------//
// Chapter 19 A little bit of Magic 
// Story: The Slow Mo Stallions 
// by gamershot 
//------------------------------//

Meanwhile at Twilight's library, the two unicorns were back inside and ready to practice again. He had pretty much mastered levitation spells.... And explosion spells, and was ready to move on to some simple temperature spells.
"Alright Dan, the next object on the table is the bowl of soup." stated Twilight, walking over to the table.
"What type of soup is it?" asked Dan goofily.
"That doesn't matter Dan." sighed Twilight. "The next spell you're going to learn is to cool things down." she said, looking at the stallion.
"Ok." he replied, walking up to the soup.
He crouched down so his eyes were level with the table top.
"Why do I need to cool the soup down... if it's not even hot?" he asked dipping his hoof into the soup. Twilight face-hoofed and used her magic to heat up the soup, making Dan pull his hoof out hastily and stick it in his mouth.
"At urt" he mumbled through his hoof.
"Pardon?" snickered the lavender book pony.
"I said that hurt." he repeated, after taking his hoof out of his mouth again.
Dan once again focused on the soup intently before looking to Twilight, wanting to know what to do.
"Alright Dan, this is just like the levitation spell. Imagine the soup in your minds eye, then imagine it cold" she explained simply. "Finally, project that through your horn."
"Okay, simple enough." replied the chestnut unicorn with a nod. He did exactly as she told him to. He imagined the soup and focused in on it really hard, then imagined liquid nitrogen soup; so cold that it condenses and clouds flow from it.
Sure enough, as he pictured the soup changing his horn and the bowl began to glow the soft chocolate brown colour of his magic, and in a flash the soup was -196 degrees Celsius and condensing in the bowl, filling the room with gas, carrots, onions and leeks.
"Dan! What in Celestia's name have you done?!" yelled Twilight, panicking at the sight of the over-flowing bowl.
"I made it cold like you said." he chuckled with a grin.
"Fix it!" she shouted, waving her hoof towards it.
"Fine." sighed Dan as he pictured the soupy mess, changing it into boiling soup.
His magic engulfed the bowl and it once again transformed, this time into a boiling bowl, spitting drops of soup from the top. Twilight's face grew red and she had to freeze the soup herself. She marched over to Dan and sighed.
"Can’t you just do it normally please?" she pleaded, fed up with the messing about.
"Alright, sorry I'll stop faffing about, though technically I only did what you said..." he trailed of, laughing slightly.
"Thanks." giggled the book pony.
Twilight used her magic to pick the block of ice up from the table and put it in her freezer.
"See as though you've mastered temperature spells, we can move onto the last spell I'm going to teach you. The spell of harm." explained Twilight. Dan smiled and his eyes widened.
"That's badass!" exclaimed Dan happily.
"Well it's only for self defense." she stressed, not wanting him to cause any trouble around Ponyville. "Before I tell you how to do it, try yourself okay? Try and make this plant die." she suggested, pointing at a small sunflower in a flowerpot on the table.
"Fine by me!" replied Dan as he stared at the plant on the table.
He did his usual routine. Stare at it, think of it, change it in his mind then project that through his horn. Only this time nothing happened. His horn glowed and so did the plant, but nothing happened to it.
"Hmmm..." muttered Dan as he stood up straight and looked to Twilight.
"You need a spell for this!" she said, letting him know why it wasn't working.
"Oh... Right, a spell" replied Dan, still not knowing what to do.
Twilight levitated a note in front of his face with the words of the spell written on it.
"Just repeat these words in your head whilst thinking of the plant, all the more complicated spells have some words you need to say or think." she explained, receiving a nod.
"Okay... Here goes." he said the words in his head and soon enough both his horn and the plant were engaged in his magic. In a flash the spell worked and the plant wilted and was close to death.
Dan looked at Twilight happily and cheered.
"Yay! I'm the best!" he yelled.
"You need to promise me that you will only use this if you really need to, this is a last resort." she stressed.
"Ok, ok, calm down. What do you think I am a monster?" chuckled Dan, patting Twilight softly, urging her to calm down.
"Yeah, sorry. This just all seems so... weird y'know?" she sighed.
"Tell me about it." replied Dan, hoisting himself up so he could sit on the table.
Twilight joined him on the table and sighed.
"What if you never get back?" she asked sadly.
"Now don't you go saying that as well!" he said. "Don't you have faith in that princess?" he asked, knowing what she would say.
"Yeah," she replied quietly, eyes fixed on the floor, "but this... This is something else."
"I'm sure it'll be fine Twilight, at least we have some friends while we’re here." he said making her smile.
"And that will get us through." she added looking up with a smile. Dan then hopped of the table and headed towards the door.
"Can we please go and see how Gav's doing though?" he pleaded, complete with puppy dog eyes.
"Sure." agreed Twilight, and so they trotted through the door.
= = =    
At carousel boutique, a white unicorn was slaving away over a sewing machine, smile on her face. She hummed a light tune to herself as she worked. She was of course making dresses and suits for the Grand Galloping Gala and she was half way through. She finished stitching the final seam for the current dress and used her magic to hold it up in front of her to examine it.
"Perfect!" she whispered to herself. "That's four down, four to go, all I need to do now are mine, Pinkie's Gavin's and Dan's." she said to herself, deep in thought, head swimming with designs.
She trotted over to the ponyquins and examined them. Every single tiny detail was perfect. She levitated the new piece over to herself and carefully stitched it onto Fluttershy's dress to complete it. She skipped around her shop both excited for the Gala and excited to see her friends' reactions to her hard work. She scanned her eyes across the outfits and the last two bare ponyquins made her think. "I need their measurements..." she realized.
“Oh dear.”