//------------------------------// // Do You Believe In Magic? // Story: Just Winging It // by arcum42 //------------------------------// As it turned out, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle had no problems at all finding Apple Bloom. After wandering around Sweet Apple Acres for a while, they came across Applejack working away bucking apples like there was no tomorrow, and Apple Bloom was fervently trying to keep up at her side. It may have taken her two or three bucks to shake the apples down, rather than one, but she seemed, all in all, to be getting pretty good at it. Applejack stopped bucking apples as they approached, and gently stopped Apple Bloom when she just kept going. "We'd best call it a day, lil' sis," Applejack told her sister, as Apple Bloom wiped sweat off her brow. "Looks like your friends are here to play." "Are you sure you don't need my help any more, Applejack?" Apple Bloom said, looking between her sister and her friends hopefully. "Sure as sugar," Applejack told her. "I've been doing this since I was your age. A few hours alone won't hurt me none." Apple Bloom looked back at her for a moment, then scampered over to where Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were standing. "Later, sis!" she called out, and joined them. "Scootaloo! Sweetie Belle!" she said. "I didn't figure we'd be crusadin' today!" "We were done at the library early and found this book and got this sweet idea for a crusade and we had to try it, so we thought we'd all try doing this together!" "What were y'all doing at the library?" Apple Bloom glanced at Scootaloo. "You ain't exactly the library type, after all." "Scoots has been holding out on us," Sweetie Belle informed  her. "I wasn't holding out on you!" Scootaloo said irritatedly. "It'd only been a few days, and I just hadn't gotten around to telling you about it yet. Besides, it's kinda personal." "Well, let's head on down to the clubhouse, and we can talk about it there, then." They all took a few minute walk down to their treehouse, and climbed up the ramp. Once they were securely inside and the door was closed, Apple Bloom turned back to Scootaloo. "Ok, there ain't nopony here but us. What's got your hooves all out of line, Scoot?" "Well, I saw a doctor a few days ago, because I still can't fly. They said I only have a twenty percent chance of ever being able to fly." "Twenty percent? We can beat those odds," Apple Bloom said. "So what are we gonna do to get you flying? Maybe there's some special equipment you can use to get your wings stronger? Wing braces or something?" "Twilight's already kinda on it," Scootaloo said. "She's coming up with this whole list of things for me to do. I'm starting to think her training's gonna take up my whole summer." "There's gotta be something more we can do, though. What's Twilight got planned? Maybe we can help her." "Well, what me and Sweetie Belle were doing today was some stuff to improve my magic, 'cause flying needs magic. Tomorrow she's gonna bring Rainbow Dash in for wing exercises and things, and then she's gonna ask Applejack about my endurance and stamina the next day." "Bet she'll have ya buckin' apples with me, then," Apple Bloom give a big grin. "I could use some help, anyway." Scootaloo groaned at the thought of spending all day apple-bucking, with Apple Bloom or not. She was probably right, too. "That's not what we're gonna try today, though," she said, hoping to get away from the subject of apple-bucking till her muscles ached. "We found this book on sigil magic, and Twilight said we could try practicing it, so we thought maybe we could get sigil magic cutie marks!" "Wait. Sweetie Belle's the only one of us that can do magic, ain't she? How could we all possibly get cutie marks in it? How could you work on magic with Twilight, even?" "Twilight turned Scootaloo into a unicorn!" Sweetie Belle blurted out. Apple Bloom turned and stared at Scootaloo. "I got better," Scootaloo offered. Apple Bloom just kept staring at her. Scootaloo decided to change the subject. "Look, according to Twilight, sigil magic can be done by anypony anyways. We found a book suggesting I use it in my training, and Twilight looked it over and said it'd be fine." Then a thought occurred to her. "Shoot, we grabbed the magic book, but not the other one, didn't we? Reggae Filly Basilum or whatever it was?" "Wait a sec." Sweetie Belle started rooting through her saddlebags, then pulled out a worn volume and waved it triumphantly. "Got it! I pulled it back out of the stack, 'cause I was curious, and stuck it back in my bag without even thinking about it." Apple Bloom looked at the book title curiously. "The training of a princess? Where did that come from?" "Princess Luna sent Twilight some books to help me out, and this was one of them," Scootaloo said. "So this was a book she used to train, then? What sort of training is it for, anyways? How to act like a princess?" Scootaloo glanced at it thoughtfully. "I dunno, really. I just figured Luna thought it was important." Sweetie Belle flipped open the book. "Trouble is that it's written in some other language. Some of it's got translations next to it, but I still can't read half of it." Being written more than a thousand years ago in the High Unicorn tongue, it wasn't particularly strange that she couldn't read the text. Luna, and Celestia would have had no trouble with it, as would Starswirl the Bearded, and Twilight could read it slowly with the occasional use of a reference guide. For three school fillies with only Equestrian Common and a smattering of Fancy between them, it was nigh impenetrable, though. Fortunately, the hoof-written translations covered most of the important parts. "Besides eddy, er, etiquette, a proper princess needs to train in three fields. She needs to understand and be one with the magic within her, have the strength and endurance to face any task ahead of her, and have the ability to fly around all obstacles that challenge her. When practicing in these three areas, the use of custom sigils for each area is recommended to make the most of her training." "Well, you know," Apple Bloom said, stroking her chin with one hoof, "that sounds a mite like the training Twilight's planning for you." "Huh. It does, doesn't it? Maybe Luna figured the training a princess gets would work for me as well, or something." "Listen to this." Sweetie had moved on to another section of the book. "...for every filly can be a princess, or has the potential to be one, and every colt a prince." Apple Bloom snorted. "You wouldn't catch me being a princess. All those frou-frou outfits, holding court, and hanging out with all those snooty nobles. Fine for some, I suppose, but I'd rather be out on Sweet Apple Acres doing real work." "Well, it's not like every girl wants to be a princess, anyways," Scootaloo said. "That'd be silly." "Um, I don't think the princesses usually wear clothes," Sweetie Belle said softly. "Besides, I think it's just saying everypony can be better than they are." "As long as that leads to me flying better than I am. Or at all, really." "I suppose we should take a look-see at that sigil book, then," Apple Bloom said. "See if we can figure out how to do custom ones." Scootaloo pulled the sigil book out and gave it to Apple Bloom, who started going through the pages. "Lets see what we got here. Some beginning exercises to do, with stuff about clearing your mind and memory exercises." "Got the first down," Scootaloo said, and Sweetie Belle nodded absently, attention on her own book. "Really? Okay. We've gotta bunch of stuff on creating your own custom sigils here, which seems to be the main theme of this book, then some talk about symbol-based magic. Says it isn't true sigil magic, but gets lumped with it, and is from the same school, whatever that means." "I'd think the part about custom sigils is what we want," Scootaloo remarked. "Wait, it's got a bit on summoning things here," Apple Bloom said, turning a few pages. "Summoning a Cutie Mark?! Let's do the custom sigil stuff later. We gotta try this!" Scootaloo peered at the page Apple Bloom was looking at, but all she could make out was "Cu-", a smudge, and then "rk". It could say "Cutie Mark", she supposed. "Are you sure that's what it says?" she asked. "I think so," Apple Bloom said abstractly. "Here, draw this squiggly thing over on the floor on the other side of the clubhouse." "If it's summoning a cutie mark, shouldn't we draw it on our flanks?" Scootaloo asked. "Nah, it says you need a large open area," Apple Bloom said, not looking up. "Once you've done that, Sweetie Belle, you can clear your mind and channel energy through the drawing, since I'm not sure how that works, and I'll say these weird words in foreign it has here." So Scootaloo started sketching out the weird squiggly diagram out in broad strokes with chalk, then added all the little details it showed afterwards. Finally, she drew a big circle around it and stood back, comparing it to the page. "That look good?" "Yeah, perfect." Scootaloo stepped back, and Sweetie Belle walked over to the diagram. She looked over Apple Bloom's shoulder at the page involving channeling power through the symbol, and her horn started glowing green. A minute later, the whole thing started glowing. Scootaloo could see that a small section of the circle had smudged, and wasn't glowing, but it was tiny, so she figured it wouldn't be a big deal. "Lucky thing they wrote out how to say this," Apple Bloom muttered. "What's with all these y's and w's?" Then she began chanting, her words somehow echoing in all three of their minds as she said them. "Dewch i lawr i ni, Culhwch Marik, Dewch i lawr gyda ni, oh un mawr, Dewch i lawr, Culhwch Marik, a gwledd yn ein plith. Dewch i lawr, oh un mawr, Ac yn ei alw yma nawr!" The diagram suddenly flared, and it's glow became almost painful to look at. Started by the flare, the glow around Sweetie Belle's horn vanished, but the light from the diagram remained, growing even brighter, so that the clubhouse seemed almost dim and grey in comparison. Then Scootaloo felt an almost overpowering presence nearby. Frightened, she backed up to the other end of the clubhouse, closely followed by the others. A smell of smoke and rotting eggs came drifting over where they were hiding, causing Sweetie Belle to cough. As the glow began to dim, Scootaloo could make out a figure standing, for lack of a better word, in the center of the diagram. She looked on in wonder, her mind trying desperately to process what she was seeing. Sitting on the diagram was a thing.  She hadn't seen many things in her day, but if anything qualified as a thing, this did. It wasn't the tentacles, the suckers covering them, the excess of eyes and mouths on stalks, the green slime oozing, or the other details individually that convinced her, or even the alien buzzing and chittering sounds it was making, but the sum total all in one place. It was a thing that should not be. She couldn't recall where she had heard the phrase, but it fit. Oh Celestia, it fit. She wanted Twilight here, or Luna, or somepony that could protect her right now. An eyestalk swiveled around the thing in a full circle, then stopped at one point. Then the creature started moving forward with a squelching sound, leaving a trail of slime behind it, going right through the smudge in the chalk. The three of them cowered against one wall as it approached, buzzing, clicking, and whirring in what Scootaloo assumed was a menacing manner. It moved towards them until they were trapped in one corner, shivering. A strange smell, like cardamom, cinnamon, and cleaning fluid mixed together emanated from its direction. Well, this is it, Scootaloo thought. I'm sorry to have let you down Vinyl, Octy, Luna, Twilight. Guess I'll be seeing you sooner than I thought, mom, dad. I wish I could have at least flown once in my life. Then the creature stopped, and a few eyestalks swivelled over to an empty spot on the wall. It chittered in a questioning tone, mandibles clicking together in confusion. Looking at the same spot, Scootaloo saw a chalk line had appeared down at the bottom of the wall. As she watched, it formed into a chalk outline of a rectangle, and then a circle was drawn on one side, making it for all the world look like a crude picture of a door. A knock came from the other side, and then another. "It's open! Come on in!" Apple Bloom called out, a sort of crazed hysterical tone in her voice, as if she wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry. The circle seemed to shimmer and turn into a full, three-dimensional doorknob, and turned on its own. The door thickened, and became real, and one claw opened it from the other side. Standing on the other side was another strange creature, but this one, at least, was one they recognised. Discord. The draconequus strolled in, teacup in one hand, and surveyed the situation. He glanced over the three crusaders, where they stood shivering, then he saw the thing in front of them, and his eyes lit up. "Culhwch!" he exclaimed happily. "I thought that was your signature I felt! It's been forever! How has the Nithon underworld been treating you?" A few clicks, whistles and buzzes came from the creature, which Discord somehow seemed to follow with ease. "Oh, shame, shame," he said. "But you're still here, still oozing, still eldritch as ever. Things will pick up, eventually. So, what brings you here?" It made a few more noises, gnashed its mandibles, and waved a few tentacles in their direction. "A snack?" Discord exclaimed, and looked over the fillies. "Oh dear, no, Fluttershy would have a fit. I believe she's rather fond of them. And I'd hate to damp down such promising chaos magicians right at their start. Besides, I believe I owe them a favor or two." A muted whirring sound came from the creature, and it backed off a bit. "Yes, I'm sure you're hungry, after a summoning like that. I've got just the thing for just this sort of occasion." He placed down his teacup on a table that appeared out of nowhere, snapped his fingers, and a milkshake appeared. It looked like it was strawberry, but it seemed entirely the wrong shade of red. He handed it to one outstretched tentacle, and the creature began sucking it down greedily through a straw. He walked over to the crusaders, who seemed on the verge of gibbering. "An excellent bit of summoning, if I do say so. Bra-vo. Job well done, girls. I can see you'll be wonderful chaos magicians - if you survive, that is." Apple Bloom was the first to recover enough to speak. "H-How did you-" "How did I know to come here? Why, you left a chaos magic signature that could be detected for miles. Hardly a difficult feat when you are as attuned to chaos as I am, now. Good thing I did, too. Culhwch Marik and I haven't had a chance to catch up in simply ages." "You're friends?" Apple Bloom asked. "But it was going to eat us!" "Shame, shame. It's not like he has any control over what he lives on. Besides, he wasn't going to eat you." "He wasn't?" Sweetie Belle asked. "No, no, he was simply going to suck out all your creativity, imagination, and inspiration. You would have recovered in a few years. It would have been such a waste, though." "Wait, is that what was in that milkshake you gave him?" Scootaloo asked. "Imagination?" "Creativity and imagination. Oh, and a touch of raspberries." "Did you just feed him another ponies creativity?" Apple Bloom said, frowning. "Don't worry, it's not like they were actually using it, anyways. Whereas you girls, well, do you know how much chaos you've stirred up in Ponyville? It's extraordinary." "We've just been tryin' to find our cutie marks. We haven't been tryin' to stir up any trouble." "Not trouble, my dears, chaos. And trying to find your 'cutie marks'?" Discord rolled his eyes. "Ponies. Classifying everything in neat little boxes. You'd like to find your 'one special talent' and then spend the rest of your humdrum little pony life breaking apples or something, I suppose." "That's apple-buckin' and that'd suit me just fine," Apple Bloom said indignantly. "It's what my family's always done." "Oh, and that makes it what you should do, too, then, hmm? Pity, you three show real potential. This the book you're using?" Discord reached out and snagged the book from Apple Bloom's unresisting hooves, and started thumbing through it. "Looks pretty straightforward. A bit dull, but you should be safe enough working with this. Oh, what's this here? Summons: This section is provided for informational purposes only and should not be attempted unless an experienced chaos magician. These spells may result in accidental death, dismemberment, or loss of one's limbs. And you were were casting from here? I'm impressed." "It said what?" Sweetie Belle shrieked. "Oh, you didn't notice that? Well, it's still impressive you cast it flawlessly first time. I suppose I'd better ensure you survive as chaos magicians, though." He grabbed the problematic section and pulled. Rather than ripping, the pages came seamlessly came out. The book then reformed itself to become smaller, and the separated pages became a separate pamphlet. "I'll just keep this part safe for you, I think. Once you start to get the rest of the book down, come see me, and perhaps you can try some summons with a bit of guidance." He handed the book back, and tucked the pamphlet into the air, where it vanished. "Well, I'd best be on my way. Ta ta for now, girls! Don't be strangers!" He waved, and gestured to the thing waiting patiently for him through the door, then went through himself, after picking back up his teacup. As he closed the door, it vanished behind him, leaving three stunned fillies standing alone in a treehouse. Apple Bloom gave the book on sigil magic back to Scootaloo. "You know, I reckon that's enough chaos magic for one day, you think?" Scootaloo couldn't help but agree. Omake: Back at Fluttershy's cottage, a table was laid out with tea at four places. On one side of the table, Discord sat sipping a cup of tea, as Angel sat with his arms crossed. On the other side sat the thing, chittering with irritation. Around each of its eyestalks, a ribbon had been tied in a bow. It whirred and squealed, waving an eyestalk with a pink ribbon tied to it. "Oh, I quite agree," Fluttershy said next to it. "That won't do at all. Here, let me get that." She gently untied the ribbon from the eyestalk, rubbing the tentacle. "Pink is entirely the wrong color for you. Here, how about this?" She pulled out a light blue ribbon and tied it on the eyestalk in the pink ones place. The creature emitted a low purring noise. Discord sighed.