The Doo family cottage was a stout, irregular little building. It wasn’t much to look at, but at least it was cozy on cool evenings. Dinky was grateful for that on this particular Saturday night; for a midsummer evening it was awfully chilly outside, but her bedroom, where she and Pipsqueak now sat, was quite comfortable.
Pip shifted his weight on the carpeting. “So, what’s the big surprise, Dinky?” he asked impatiently. “You’ve been keeping it a secret all day!”
Dinky laughed teasingly. “Be patient, Pip! I’ll show you in a second.”
Dinky levitated her saddlebag off her bed and brought it to rest in front of her. Pipsqueak watched it float as a cat might watch a bird hovering just out of reach.
Dinky cocked her head. “What’s wrong? You’re not still fascinated by levitation, are you?”
Pip smiled sheepishly. “Well, you see it every day,” he countered. “For an earth pony like me, magic is still something… whimsical, I guess.”
Dinky chuckled. “I guess I shouldn’t be talking,” she admitted. “I’m a unicorn, and I was still amazed by even the simplest magic a year or so ago.”
She grinned. “But today I’m excited because I found some magic that you and I can share.”
Pip’s eyes widened. “But… but earth ponies can’t use magic the way you can,” he stuttered. “How could we? We don’t have horns.”
“Earth ponies can’t cast spells like unicorns can, but that doesn’t mean they can’t wield magic of any kind,” Dinky explained. “I brought something home this week that can let even earth ponies use something similar to unicorn magic.”
Dinky opened the flap on her saddlebag, and the two pendants she’d prepared in Enchantments class, as well as her Enchantments book, floated out. She placed one pendant on the floor in front of her hooves, and the other just in front of Pipsqueak.
Pipsqueak examined the pendant, gazing at his reflection in the diamond. “What is it?” he asked finally. “I mean, I know you can wear it like a necklace, but… what’s it for?”
“It’s a pendant,” Dinky said. “I’m going to enchant the jewel in the center.”
“Oh,” Pipsqueak said. He looked first at his pendant, then at Dinky’s, and finally at Dinky herself.
“You don’t know what that means, do you?” the filly asked.
“No idea.”
“Well, basically it means I can store a spell in the gem in the center,” Dinky elaborated, gesturing to the diamonds. “Once I do that, the magic stays in the stone, even once I stop actively using the spell.”
Pipsqueak seemed to get it all at once. “And once the spell is in the pendant, whoever’s wearing it can use the effect?” he asked.
“Now you get why I’m excited!” Dinky said. “This is magic that you can use, even without a horn!”
Pipsqueak sprang to his hooves. “Well, what’re you waiting for!” he said eagerly. “Put a spell on it!”
Dinky smirked. “Slow down, Pip. Don’t you wanna know what the spell is first?”
Pip returned his rump to the floor, his tiny tail flicking back and forth eagerly. “Yes please.”
Dinky placed her Enchantments book on the floor and began to page through it. “You know how you and I both wished we didn’t have to be separated when I got accepted to the Academy?” she asked. “We can’t change that fact, but I found an enchantment that can make it a little easier on us.”
Dinky found the page she was looking for. “I’ll show you how it works once I cast it,” she promised. “Place your hoof on my pendant, please.”
Pip laid his hoof delicately on the diamond. Dinky decided this was not the best time to point out that the gem was so nearly indestructible that caution wasn’t necessary. Quietly, she reached over and placed her own hoof on the pendant in front of Pipsqueak.
“Are you ready?” she asked. “It’s time to cast the spell.”
Pipsqueak nodded. “I’m ready when you are,” he affirmed. “I trust you.”
Pipsqueak watched in wonder as Dinky closed her eyes and allowed the magic she wished to summon to build up around her horn. An orb of yellow energy inflated on the tip like a big magical bubble, and after it had come loose and floated into the air, a second one followed suit. Slowly, both spheres descended until they hovered just above the hooves of the two foals. They surrounded each pendant, glowed with brilliant brightness for a few seconds, and then gradually faded away.
Pipsqueak lifted the pendant and inspected it curiously. “It doesn’t look any different,” he concluded.
“It’s not supposed to,” Dinky assured him. “The magic’s sealed inside. Put it on and I’ll show you what it does!”
Pipsqueak hesitated, eyeing the pendant cautiously.
“It’s not gonna send a big blast of magic flowing through you when you put it on, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Dinky said, grinning. “In fact, you probably won’t feel anything at all.”
She slipped the string of her own pendant over her head. “See? Nothing.”
Pipsqueak shrugged and pulled his own pendant on. He stared down at it as it dangled around his neck. “So you said this will somehow make it not seem like we’re so far apart when you’re away,” he mentioned. “What’s it do, exactly?”
“Well, let’s say I’m at school, and I happen to think of you, and how I can’t wait to come back to Ponyville and visit,” Dinky started. “As soon as my thoughts turn to you—”
Pipsqueak gasped as he felt the magic take effect. The pendant around his neck shimmered with a yellow glow, exactly like Dinky’s magical aura. Pipsqueak placed his hoof against it as it rested on his chest, awed.
“So that’s… that’s what your magic feels like?” he managed. “It’s uh… oh jeez, how do I even describe it…”
Pip tapped a hoof to his chin, thinking. “It feels like it’s alive,” he concluded. “It’s like I can feel you, or at least some connection to you, right there in the pendant.”
Dinky smiled triumphantly. “It works just how I was hoping then!” she announced. “Now, if you think about me, the same thing should happen.”
An instant later, the same faint yellow light and warmth surrounded the filly’s pendant. Just as Pipsqueak had described, it was as if she could feel his presence within the gem.
Pipsqueak removed the pendant a moment later, looking astounded. “Dinky, this is… it’s so fantastic, I’m not even sure what to say.”
Dinky shrugged. “It wasn’t a big deal,” she said modestly. “I mean, I really like the spell too, but it wasn’t terribly hard to cast. They probably only work as well as they do because of the diamonds in the pendants.”
“I don’t care why they work,” Pipsqueak said. “You’re the one who went through the trouble of making them. Just for us.”
Pipsqueak leaned forward and nuzzled Dinky. She blushed a little more than she wished she had at the colt’s touch. Pipsqueak, noticing her flushed cheeks, reddened a bit as well.
“Sorry,” he mumbled. “Maybe that was a little much. I just liked your enchantment so much that I got a little, uh, overwhelmed.”
Dinky smiled. “Don’t worry, Pip. You’re one of my best friends. If you weren’t, I wouldn’t have made the pendants in the first place. I think a quick nuzzle once in a while is justified.”
“Oh,” Pipsqueak said awkwardly. “But then… why’d you seem sorta… embarrassed?”
Dinky lightly slapped the colt on the back. “Because I like you, you dolt! You know that!”
That broke the tension; both foals burst into laughter that could be heard throughout the cottage.
Downstairs, Ditzy Doo’s ears perked up. She smiled knowingly and continued cleaning the kitchen.
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The following week, Dinky and her friends met on the school grounds, with three bundles of varying sizes wrapped up in blankets.
“Alright,” Clarity said quietly, beckoning her friends in closer. “Make sure nopony’s watching. We’ve gotta smuggle this stuff into the forest to set up our hideout. Dinky, Honeydew: you two carry the stuff, and I’ll stay here and make sure we aren’t noticed by suspicious passersby.”
Clarity hopped onto a low, flat rock and took a lookout pose that, in all honesty, probably made her stand out more than she would have otherwise. Unwilling to dash Clarity’s enthusiasm, Dinky simply shrugged and marched into the forest, with Honeydew keeping close behind.
“Strange as it seems for me, Clarity’s even got me excited about this,” Honeydew admitted. “I really like the forest, and the idea of a place outside of our tower to hide from Scuffle… and somehow having a secret hideout just seems… kinda fun.”
Dinky chuckled. “Of course it seems fun,” she said. “There are three fillies in Ponyville who have a secret clubhouse. I’ve visited it once or twice, and let me tell you, it’s awesome having a space all your own. Other than the one you live in, I mean; one you can do whatever you want with.”
The pair of fillies reached the big tree, and Honeydew cast the spell that caused the roots to part. “Clarity’s barrette should be telling her we’re here,” the pink filly said. “Let’s just wait for her to catch up before we go inside.”
She glanced at the pendant hanging from Dinky’s neck. “Did you and Pipsqueak enchant those, now?” she asked.
Dinky nodded happily. “Yeah, we activated them on Saturday. He really liked them.”
On cue, Dinky’s pendant glowed softly, and she giggled. “See, you got me thinking about him, and now he’s thinking of me!”
Clarity emerged from the brush into the clearing around the tree. “Ok, quick, into the hollow before someone spots us,” she commanded.
The underground room was flooded with yellow, deep red, and pale green light as the three fillies lit their horns.
“Oh, I almost forgot,” Clarity said, opening one of the bundles. “Look what I got a hold of this weekend.”
Clarity pulled a large, spherical object from among the stuff she’d brought and cast a spell at it. Light burst forth instantly, flooding the chamber with brighter light than the combined efforts of the trio of ponies.
“An illumination orb!?” Dinky asked, incredulous. “How exactly did you get one of those?”
“It’s best if you don’t know,” Clarity said, smirking. “The dean already dislikes you as it is. You don’t need to get involved with anything else.”
“Clarity!” Dinky scolded.
“It wasn’t that bad,” Honeydew clarified. “She just hid the orb from our room and told Sparkler that it broke. Sparkler retrieved a new one from some supply room for us. Not that I condone lying, but…”
Honeydew trailed off and decided she’d be better off occupying herself with one of the bundles.
Dinky opened the bundle she had brought along. Inside were a few posters of some of her favorite celebrities, and the big beanbag chair Twist and Pipsqueak had pooled their money to buy her for her birthday a few weeks before.
“So,” said Clarity, as she unpacked a small folding table. “Anything interesting happen to you girls lately?”
“I met a friendly foal last Friday,” Dinky recalled. “He was a little colt named Sunbeam. I never noticed he was there for some reason, but he seems used to blending into the background. He and I are going to hang out after class on Friday. Maybe you girls can come too.”
Clarity raised an eyebrow. “Wait, so a colt you’ve never seen before just appeared? That seems a little suspicious if you ask me.”
“Nah, he was harmless,” Dinky assured her. “He didn’t seem too assertive; I think he just sits there out of the way and wishes he had someone to talk to. That’s probably why I never really noticed him around. I bet if we look around in the dining room during lunch sometime, we’d probably see him sitting alone in a corner somewhere.”
A sound near the hidden entrance of the hideout cut the girls’ conversation short.
“What’s that?” asked Honeydew. “Don’t tell me someone’s found this place already.”
The sound continued for a moment, and a small orange creature slunk into the room.
“It’s only the fox,” Clarity announced. “I sure hope the little guy doesn’t think we’re gonna bring him food regularly.”
The fox marched to the back of the room near where Dinky was applying another poster and sat down, glancing between the three fillies curiously. Dinky bent down to examine the fox’s injured leg.
“I see you’ve been chewing at that splint I made,” she said crossly. “The scarf’s too full of teeth marks for me to use anymore.”
As if taunting Dinky, the fox sat down and began gnawing at the wrappings.
Dinky shook her head. “Nothing but trouble, that’s what you are,” she grumbled, slightly annoyed.
“You should just call him that,” Honeydew chuckled. “We can’t really stop him from getting in here, so we might as well give him a name.”
Dinky raised an eyebrow. “We should call him Trouble?” she asked. “That’s kind of a funny name.”
The fox, now bored with chewing on the splint, decided instead to pull one of the posters away from the bundle of Dinky’s supplies, and proceeded to rip it to shreds.
Dinky exchanged a glance with her friends and sighed as she began to pick up the pieces of the shredded poster. “I take it back, Honeydew,” she said. “That’s a perfect name. Trouble it is.”
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Dinky and her friends made numerous trips to their secret hideout throughout the rest of the week. It seemed to be working as planned; for once, Scuffle wasn’t a constant threat whenever they were outside of their residence tower or out of sight of a professor. Trouble was the only other creature that seemed to know about the chamber, although the fox usually tended to give the fillies their space as he wandered around the room or napped in a shady corner.
Eventually, Dinky learned the spell to prompt the tree to spread its roots wide enough for the fillies to enter. Clarity remained unable to cast it because, having opted not to take Magical Biology as an elective, she lacked any sort of formal training in such spells. Still, she seemed eager to practice.
In no time at all it was Friday, and Dinky found herself preparing for what she hoped wouldn’t be a terribly hostile confrontation with Nester. She and Clarity took their usual seats in Transformation and Conjuring class, but curiously, the changeling was nowhere to be found.
“Nester will be joining us shortly,” Professor Flux announced to the class. “He had some private business to take care of, but he’ll be back in time for the practical portion of our class.”
Dinky and Clarity exchanged suspicious glances.
“Today’s topic is Alchemy,” the professor said in his usual no-nonsense tone. “Tell me, what first comes to mind when you hear that word?”
Dinky was too wrapped up in thoughts of Nester to offer an answer, but Clarity raised a hoof.
“Alchemy, traditionally, is defined as the process of turning something into gold,” she answered, “although if memory serves, I think there’s a little more to it than that.”
“Correct on both points, Clarity,” the professor replied, pleased. “Alchemy, as most ponies would define it, is the use of magical means to convert a substance into gold. In actuality, however, alchemy is the conversion of any base chemical element into any element, and over the years the field has expanded to include more complex substances, and even a search for compounds with inherently magical properties in an unenchanted state. The alchemists of old took advantage of this transformative possibility to try to turn everyday substances into more precious ones, of which gold was probably the most notable. This led the field of alchemy to receive the reputation it has today.”
The professor stopped speaking and raised an eyebrow, as if waiting for a response to an unspoken question. When none came, he cleared his throat loudly.
“Nester,” he grumbled. “What, pray tell, are you doing?”
“Nothing!” came a voice from above. “I’m just trying to make my way into the classroom without disrupting your lecture, sir!”
The students looked up, and most laughed upon seeing the playful changeling plodding along the ceiling with whatever it was that allowed changeling hooves to cling to surfaces. Upon reaching the front of the room, Nester turned and walked vertically down the wall before coming to stand next to the professor.
“Go on,” he urged, ignoring Professor Flux’s glare.
The stallion snorted. “…As I was saying, from a chemical standpoint, one element is distinguished from another by the number of subatomic particles that make up each atom of it. So an alchemical spell involves uniformly adding or removing particles to each.”
He gestured to the desks. “I’ve given each of you a lump of metal. The identity of each one is different, but each is labeled for easy identification. You also each have a table of elements so you know which substance you’re likely to wind up with if you properly perform a spell to add or remove subatomic particles. Turn to the alchemy section in your textbook for instructions, and speak with me or Nester if you have questions.”
As usual, Dinky and Clarity partnered up immediately, discussing matters quietly as they prepared to practice the magical exercise.
“What do you suppose Nester’s ‘private business’ was?” Dinky asked.
Clarity shrugged. “Don’t jump to conclusions, Dinky,” she warned. “Even if Nester has been stalking you, there’s no reason to believe that that’s related to wherever he was at the beginning of class.”
“Unless he was thinking up an alibi before I had a chance to confront him,” Dinky guessed.
Clarity shook her head. “There’s no convincing you, is there?” she asked, nervously swaying her tail.
“Everything alright over here, girls?”
The fillies broke their huddle as Nester approached their desks. “Ol’ Nester’s got a little experience with alchemy,” he announced, flashing a goofy, fanged grin. “Need some tips?”
“We’re fine,” Dinky assured the changeling. “But Nester, can I talk to you after class? In private?”
Nester’s wings vibrated as he processed the question. “Uh… sure,” he said finally. “There’s not something wrong, is there? Just let me know if I’m bugging you.”
He gave a chattering laugh. “Get it? Bugging you? Because I’m a—”
He trailed off, noticing Dinky’s serious expression. “After class it is,” he said quietly.
Nester slunk off. Clarity gave Dinky a grave look.
“I guess you can’t back out now,” the grey filly said. “Just please try not to be too harsh on him. After all, you still don’t have any proof.”
Dinky’s expression remained serious. “I’ll just have to see where our little discussion goes, I guess,” she said decisively. “I want answers today, so he’d better be willing to give them."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After class, Nester escorted Dinky to an empty classroom down the hall. He closed the door and turned to the filly, looking nervous.
“Look, in all seriousness, if there’s a problem, I’ll be more than happy to address it immediately,” he said. “Obviously, because of the circumstances surrounding my employment, student satisfaction is my number one goal.”
“I understand that,” Dinky said. “However, there’s one thing that’s concerning me, and we need to address it.”
She took a step closer to Nester, causing the changeling to back off another pace. To a bystander it would have been a comical scene: a frightful changeling, intimidated by a grade-school filly.
“Nester, I have reason to believe you’ve been spying on me,” Dinky said bluntly. “Care to shed any light on that, or do I need to elaborate?”
Nester lifted a forehoof defensively. “Spying? Me? I haven’t come across you even once outside of our Transformation class, Dinky.”
“Really?” Dinky asked skeptically. “Well, something’s been watching me from the cover of the forest. Something with blue eyes that seems to shift forms as it moves to prevent me from getting a good look at it. That seems a little too suspicious to ignore.”
Nester’s eyes widened. “It’s not me, I swear!” he promised. “But it does sound like… I mean… are you sure that’s what you saw?”
Dinky nodded.
Nester inhaled sharply. “The Princess assured me there would be no way for my former hive-mates to find me here,” he moaned. “If another changeling is onto me, I’m in real trouble.”
“I doubt it’s another changeling,” Dinky said. “The guards are positioned all around the valley on the lookout for a number of threats, changelings included. That means there’s only one changeling who could be lurking in the forest.”
Nester was beginning to look particularly upset. “But… I… Dinky…” he sputtered. “It’s not me! Really!”
Dinky sighed. “I’d like to believe that, Nester,” she admitted. “After all, you seem like a fine assistant in class. But there’s some evidence against you. I’d hate to falsely accuse you, but if the spying keeps up, I’m gonna have to take the matter to Princess Celestia for further investigation.”
Nester’s jagged ears flattened against his head. “But, if they have any reason to suspect me, they’ll—”
He cut himself off. “Forget it,” he mumbled, slumping in a defeated manner. “I need some time to figure out what’s going on.”
He made the most pitiable face that a creature as grotesque as a changeling could manage. “Please, Dinky, don’t report the issue unless you have to. There’s more than just my job on the line here.”
He stared at her a moment longer, and then turned and scuttled out the door as quickly as he could manage, leaving a frustrated and bewildered Dinky standing alone in the deserted room.
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Dinky and her friends each had afternoon classes to attend, but the trio took advantage of the interim between classes to discuss Nester from the privacy of their hideout. The three of them galloped into the forest, unaware of the three colts, two large and one small, watching them from a third-story window of the castle.
“Boy, those three sure have been disappearing into the forest a lot lately,” Frosty remarked.
“And they stay in there for an awful long time,” Scorch added.
“What’s even more interesting is that they’re being all secretive about it,” Frosty continued. “That little blue-maned one seems like she’s keeping watch, see?”
The colts watched Clarity stand guard, making sure no ponies on the grounds were watching her. Soon, she turned and ran into the shade of the trees.
“There she goes,” Scorch said. “She made sure no one out there on the grounds followed her. Too bad she doesn’t realize ponies can see her from inside the castle.”
“You don’t suppose they’ve actually found something interesting in there?” Scuffle asked, looking curiously at his older brothers.
“Well, Scuff, keeping tabs on the first-term foals is your job,” Scorch pointed out. “Why don’t you go down there and find out?”
“Uh… well, I dunno,” Scuffle said, giving his tail an indecisive swish. “I mean, we’ve been in there before. It’s just a lot of trees and not much else.”
“You’re probably right,” Scorch admitted. “Fillies like them wouldn’t know cool if it bit them in the a—”
“Scorch, you gotta look at the big picture!” Frosty interrupted. “Sure, there’s a good chance that it’s nothing, but it’s worth investigating all the same. If it’s something awesome, we could score big.”
He turned to Scuffle. “Besides, you love pushing those fillies around! Whatever’s down there, they clearly think it’s worth keeping secret, so go find it and take it from ‘em! In the worst case scenario, whatever they’re hiding is stupid, but you still get a laugh out of watching those crybabies whine.”
“Uhh…” Scuffle started.
“Come on, get going!” Scorch commanded. “We have class now, but we wanna hear all about this later, alright?”
Scuffle’s smile showed in his mouth, but a bit less so in his eyes. “Sure,” he said. “See you guys later.”
The brown colt turned and sprinted down the hall.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“So, Nester denied everything, huh?”
Dinky nodded solemnly. “I just don’t know what to think now,” she admitted. “On one hoof, all the evidence we have still seems to point to Nester. But on the other hoof, he seemed really frightened at the prospect of being reported. Would he really risk his job to accomplish… whatever goal he hopes to achieve by spying on me?”
Clarity and Honeydew both shrugged. “Give it a little more time,” Honeydew suggested. “If the spying continues, maybe you can get more details about the stalker and prove whether or not it’s actually Nester.”
Dinky leaned against the earthen wall of the hideout, lost in thought. “That’s what Nester was hoping I’d do,” she said finally. “I guess I can give him the benefit of the doubt one more time.”
There was a loud rustle in the bushes outside the tunnel entrance, catching the attention of all three fillies.
“Uh-oh,” Honeydew squeaked. “Do you think somepony found us?”
Clarity waved a hoof dismissively. “It’s probably just Trouble. He comes in here almost every day.”
Dinky’s ears swiveled toward the sound. “It sounds too big to be Trouble,” she said skeptically. “Maybe I’d better go see what it is.”
Dinky trotted up the tunnel and parted the roots. She stepped up onto the forest floor and looked around.
“Well, this is interesting,” said a malicious male voice. “You’ve been hiding under the tree. No wonder I couldn’t find you.”
Dinky whirled around just as an all-too-familiar brown colt stepped out from behind the huge tree concealing the secret room.
“Sc-Scuffle,” Dinky stuttered. “How did you find us?”
Scuffle laughed. “That’s not important. Let’s take a look at this little cave of yours, shall we?”
Dinky reacted immediately. She dove back down the tunnel and immediately lit her horn to yank the roots shut. Scuffle charged forward, but the tree responded to Dinky’s spell at the last moment, and Scuffle collided with the roots head first before staggering backwards, dazed.
Dinky’s momentum caused her to stumble and slide back into the chamber on her stomach, surprising her friends. “Scuffle found us!” she cried.
Honeydew let out a squeal that was almost too high for Dinky to hear and backed against the wall, staring at the tunnel and shaking violently.
“Hey!” came Scuffle’s voice from beyond the roots. “I’m not in the mood for nonsense today. Open these roots right now!”
“Why should we?” Clarity called. “They’re there to keep unwanted trash like you out!”
Scuffle chuckled. “You talk big when you think I can’t reach you,” he commented. “I don’t think you three get it, though. I’ve gotten a whole lot better at combat spells since I dueled Dinky Doofus at the beginning of the year. Open these roots or I’ll blast them open instead!”
Dinky walked to the base of the tunnel and stared up at the colt visible through the tiny openings. “You’re bluffing,” she shot back.
Scuffle responded by lighting his horn. Blue sparks flew from it and rained down into the narrow tunnel, forcing Dinky to back up.
“Believe what you want,” Scuffle said. “You’ve got ten seconds to open these roots or I’ll do it myself.”
Scuffle’s horn glowed brighter, casting unsettling shadows around the underground room. Dinky turned to her friends, silently asking their opinions.
Clarity bit her lip and sighed. “Let him in, I guess,” she mumbled. “If he damages the entrance, it won’t really be secret to anypony anymore.”
Dinky turned to Honeydew, but the pink filly just shivered and remained too petrified to give an opinion. Dinky and Clarity placed themselves between Honeydew and the tunnel entrance, and then Dinky slowly drew the roots apart.
Scuffle made his way down the tunnel. His eyes widened when he got a look at the room below and he nodded, clearly impressed.
“Well, this is a whole lot cooler than I was expecting,” he admitted. “With a little redecorating, this’ll make an awesome hangout for me, Scorch, and Frosty.”
“Excuse me?” Dinky asked, irritated. “This is our hideout. You and your brothers aren’t welcome.”
“This was your hideout,” Scuffle corrected. “But I think my brothers will be happy to take it off your hooves. That is, unless you wanna fight us for it…”
“Are you crazy?” Clarity snapped. “We’re not interested in getting in more trouble for fighting. Besides, pitting us against your brothers? It’s not even a fair fight!”
“Well then, I guess we win by default,” Scuffle said dully, glancing at the various decorations. “Go on, get your stuff. I won’t give you any trouble.”
Dinky and Clarity exchanged a look.
“Is there anything we can do?” Dinky asked.
“Not unless you want to fight him again,” Clarity sighed. “And even if you can take Scuffle down, you wouldn’t stand a chance against his brothers.”
“That’s right,” Scuffle said, nodding and smiling much like a professor would when a student answered a question correctly. “Lucky for you two, you saw reason before things got ugly. Now let me just make sure that filly shaking like a leaf in the wind back there is in agreement.”
Scuffle moved to trot around Dinky and Clarity, but the girls blocked his path.
“Leave Honeydew alone,” Dinky commanded. “She’s not willing to argue with you.”
Scuffle responded by causally casting his favorite gravity spell, pinning Dinky and Clarity to the floor. Dinky immediately cast her magic cancelling counterspell, but Scuffle had already stepped over them and was now facing Honeydew.
“And what’s your problem?” he asked. “Stop standing around and help your friends get this stuff off the walls.”
Honeydew remained frozen, her expression terrified.
“Stop it, Scuffle!” Clarity urged. “She’s scared of you. Leave her alone.”
Scuffle snorted. “If she wants me to leave her alone, then she’d better get moving! Now!”
Scuffle lurched forward threateningly as he finished speaking. Honeydew went pale and promptly collapsed, covering her face with her forehooves and whimpering.
The colt stepped back, apparently not expecting such an extreme reaction. “…Is she okay?” he asked, turning back to Dinky and Clarity and raising an eyebrow.
“What do you think?” asked Dinky angrily. “Honeydew’s spent the whole term going way out of her way to stay away from you. You’ve been annoying all three of us for months, but Clarity and I are made of tougher stuff than Honeydew. Do you know what it's been like for her?”
Scuffle looked genuinely surprised. He turned back to Honeydew, eyeing her curiously. “What’s got your tail in such a twist?” he asked the pink filly. “I haven’t even tried to fight you or anything.”
Honeydew began to sob. “Just go away!” she wailed. “I can’t take it anymore! This place was the only spot where we could hide from you, and now—”
The rest of Honeydew’s sentence was lost in another huge sob. Scuffle took another step back, watching the filly nervously.
“I didn’t think she—” he stammered. “I mean, I wanted to make you three angry, but I didn’t know it was so—”
Scuffle couldn’t figure out how to finish the thought. He stamped a hoof on the dirt floor. “Horseapples, now what am I supposed to do?”
“What’s wrong?” asked Clarity bitterly. “Finding this information kinda hard to swallow, Scuffle?”
Scuffle blinked. “Well… yeah,” he said quietly.
Dinky started. “Wait, you are?” she asked. “For this entire term, you’ve been a jerk every chance you had, and now suddenly it bothers you to see somepony upset?”
“Of course it’s bothering him,” Clarity cut in, as if it was obvious. “Can’t you see it? When he walked in, he was strutting around with his usual swagger. Now he looks like he has no idea how he even wound up down here in the first place.”
Dinky scrunched up her nose, looking at Scuffle skeptically. “But that would imply that he actually cares how we feel. Usually he delights in seeing us suffer.”
Scuffle’s face contorted into a snarl. “It’s not like I have a choice!” he yelled. “Do you three have any idea what my life is like?”
Dinky shrugged apathetically. “You and your brothers trot around the school like you own the place and drive everypony else crazy.”
Scuffle nodded. “Exactly! Scorch and Frosty have been at the top of the food chain for years,” he explained. “There isn’t a student in this school other than the overseers who is willing to stand up to them.”
“I know,” Dinky said. “And you’ve been taking advantage of their influence to do whatever you want, right?”
“No!” Scuffle cried. “You seem to think that Scorch and Frosty are willing to back me up no matter what I do. You couldn’t be more wrong about that.”
Dinky remained confused, but an understanding expression began to creep across Clarity’s face. “Wait, are you saying what I think you’re saying?” the grey filly asked.
“I’m saying Scorch and Frosty would turn on me just as easily as they’d turn on anypony in this school if they had a reason to!” Scuffle shouted. “They already think I’m a wimp because of my pathetic special talent, after all.”
The fillies looked at the iron cage on Scuffle’s flank. “What is your special talent, exactly?” Dinky asked.
Scuffle rolled his eyes. “I’m good at defensive spells, you idiot,” he huffed. “Especially ones that trap my opponent. Things like immobilization, stunning, or one of my favorites, gravity. But that stuff hardly counts as battle magic. I can’t cause huge explosions or biting cold like my brothers, so it’s taken all my effort to convince them I’m not a wimp.”
“So… you’re really only a bully because your brothers won’t respect you otherwise?” Dinky asked skeptically. “I find that kind of hard to believe, Scuffle. You’ve bothered us plenty of times when your brothers weren’t even around. Like now, for instance.”
Scuffle smacked his forehead with a hoof. “I was trying to keep up the illusion,” he said, frustrated. “If I was nice to you three sometimes, then you’d realize it was all fake when my brothers were around. If you girls act like I’m a nice guy, that’s still enough evidence for them to turn on me. I guess I’m stuck in that situation now, and it’s going to make things a whole lot harder.”
“So, what about when I dueled you near the beginning of the term?” Dinky asked. “How did that affect this?”
“That made everything worse,” Scuffle barked. “When my brothers found out a filly stood up to me, and for that matter almost beat me, I had to make it my mission to give you girls a hard time every chance I got, in order to prove to them that you were no match for me. I took a heck of a risk giving you back your little beginner’s magic book after that. Honestly I only needed it to practice a little, but I couldn’t let you know that without blowing my cover.”
Scuffle paused and looked at Honeydew. The pink filly had stopped crying, but her green eyes met his slate blue ones with a look of distrust and revulsion.
“Bullying fillies is one thing,” Scuffle mumbled, “but reducing them to… to that is… too much.”
He slumped down onto his haunches. “I don’t know what to do now,” he said angrily. “I don’t think I can keep this up anymore, but as soon as I show any mercy to you three, I’ll become Scorch and Frosty’s number one target.”
The three fillies looked at the colt as he continued to stare at the floor.
“Well, Scuffle…” Dinky started awkwardly, “understand that, given the circumstances, we’re hesitant to just extend the olive branch, but—”
Scuffle’s rage came rushing back. “I don’t need sympathy from you three anyway,” he growled. “I’m left with a choice; I either keep bullying you, at least in public, or risk nonstop torment from Scorch and Frosty. I don’t have the foggiest idea where to go from here.”
He rose to his hooves and made for the tunnel. “I’ll cut you three a deal,” he grumbled, refusing to look back. “I’ll tell Scorch and Frosty that there was nothing out here worth finding. But you’d better take more care to keep this place secret. If they find out I cut you a break, that’s it.”
Scuffle harrumphed and stormed up the passageway, leaving the fillies in silence. Once the sound of his hoofsteps had faded, Dinky and Clarity rushed to check on Honeydew, who was still sprawled on the hollow’s floor.
“Is he gone?” Honeydew whispered, still covering her eyes with her hooves.
“He is,” Clarity assured her, as she and Dinky sat down on either side of the frightened filly. “He’s not going to tell his brothers about our hideout either.”
“That is, assuming we can believe what he said,” Dinky added.
Clarity shrugged. “He doesn’t have anything to gain from being lenient,” she pointed out. “I can’t imagine that whole thing was just some prank.”
The trio remained there in silence for a few moments more. Honeydew took a deep, shuddering breath and slowly stood.
“What do we do now?” she asked in a quavering voice.
“I don’t know,” Dinky admitted. “All this time Scuffle wasn’t quite what we thought he was. Maybe… he deserves some sympathy?”
Honeydew shook her head violently. “Sympathy for Scuffle?” she asked. “Even if he’s telling the truth, he’s still a terrible pony!”
Noticing Dinky and Clarity’s surprised looks, she blushed slightly. “What?” the pink filly asked. “I’m sorry but… I’m not a pony who can just forgive somepony like that right away. I was barely willing to talk to you two when the term started, remember? I… I can’t bring myself to reach out to a pony who has forced me to live in fear for the whole term.”
Clarity leaned forward and gave Honeydew a comforting nuzzle. “We understand,” she said. “Let’s just… wait and see what happens the next time we run into him. I’m pretty sure we’re not the only ones who need to think this through.”
Clarity drew the light from the illumination orb, and the three fillies climbed out of the hideout without another word.
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Needless to say, Dinky once again had trouble focusing in Magic in History class later that afternoon. Caught up in her own thoughts, she absentmindedly collected her belongings at the end of class and began to trot toward the door. A hoof placed itself on her shoulder and jolted her back to reality. Dinky turned around and found her new friend Sunbeam standing behind her.
“Hiya,” Sunbeam greeted. “Are we still going to hang out today? Or do you have something more important to do? You do look kinda busy, yes you do.”
“Oh, we can still hang out!” Dinky assured him. “Sorry, I almost forgot about it. It’s been kind of a stressful day so far.”
Sunbeam nodded understandingly. “Well, hopefully we can go have some fun and take your mind off all that for a while, yes we can,” he suggested, smiling.
“That’s what I’m counting on,” Dinky said with a laugh. “Want me to go find my friends, so they can come with us?”
Sunbeam cringed. “I, uh, don’t spend a whole lot of time with other ponies because of my speech tic, no I do not,” he admitted. “I was thinking it could be just us today, and after we know each other a little better, then we can bring your friends, yes we can.”
Dinky shrugged. “I’m sure they’d be fine with it, but if it makes you more comfortable, we’ll just go alone.”
Sunbeam nodded in thanks.
“So, we have the rest of the day off,” Dinky observed. “What would you like to do? Go for a swim? Get an afternoon snack?”
“Well, if you’re interested, I have something really cool I could show you, yes I do,” Sunbeam mentioned. “That is, if you’re alright with practicing a little magic.”
“Oh, of course!” Dinky responded. “Lead the way.”
Sunbeam smiled and trotted off, leading the filly down the corridor.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A heavy wooden door swung open, casting the first light the room had seen in years across the dusty floor.
“What’s in here?” Dinky asked, struggling to see in the dim room beyond the doorway. “Are we even supposed to be in this place?”
“This is a classroom, yes it is,” Sunbeam assured her. “It’s been left unused for some time now, but nopony will object to our using it as a practice room.”
In the fashion of a gentlecolt, Sunbeam stepped aside and gestured for Dinky to enter. The filly trotted inside, and Sunbeam entered behind her, closing the door with a quick flicker of magic.
Dinky lit the sole illumination orb in the room, lighting the abandoned classroom. “Are you sure about this?” she asked, running a hoof along a tabletop and drawing a line in the thick layer of dust. “I can understand using an empty room, but this one hasn’t been touched in years, it seems.”
Sunbeam shrugged. “The professors and overseers never mentioned any part of the castle or grounds that was off limits, no they did not,” he pointed out. “This room is abandoned, sure, but we can still use it.”
Dinky sneezed, and swept the rest of the offending dust off the low table with her tail. “Well, I guess it is a good place for practicing in private. Apparently nopony in their right mind comes in here anymore.”
Sunbeam just smiled sheepishly.
“Anyway, what kind of spell did you have in mind?” Dinky asked the colt.
“It’s a whole group of spells, actually,” Sunbeam said. “They’re unusual and pretty rarely used, yes they are. You won’t find any classes here that teach spells like these.”
“Why’s that?” Dinky asked. “What kind of spells are these, anyway?”
Sunbeam thought it over. “They’re a little of everything, yes they are,” he decided. “Some are enchantments, some transformations, and some are even combat spells! What sets them apart from those fields is that they tap into an entirely different type of magical energy, yes they do.”
Dinky raised an eyebrow. “There’s more than one kind of magical energy?” she asked skeptically. “If that’s the case, why have I never heard of them?”
“This alternative magic requires much more effort to summon at first,” Sunbeam explained. “Ponies seem to think it’s not worth the effort to bother with them, but some can produce different effects than the more widely used counterparts, yes they can. I think they’re fascinating, yes I do.”
Dinky gave Sunbeam a blank stare. “Now hang on,” she said, looking at the colt disbelievingly. “If there’s one thing I’m sure of about the unicorns who work at this school, it’s that they’d never neglect an entire field of magic just because it’s more difficult than normal spells. In fact, I think most of our professor’s would be more than happy to rise to the challenge.”
Sunbeam looked at the floor. “Alright, I suppose that’s not the whole truth, no it’s not,” he admitted. “What I said is still true, but… well, this magic is a very new discovery. Many spells are untested, and so only some select ponies are being told about it right now. The professors know, but most of the students don’t, no they do not.”
“Then why do you know?” Dinky asked.
“I’ve been helping to study it in private with one professor, yes I have,” Sunbeam said. “It’s a very hush-hush operation; I probably wasn’t supposed to tell you about it at all, but… well, I don’t really have any close friends, and I really, really wanted a practice partner, yes I did…”
Dinky’s suspicious expression softened. “That’s more believable,” she admitted. “I guess this means I have to keep the spells secret, huh?”
“That would probably be best, yes it would,” Sunbeam answered. “The more ponies that know, the more likely the knowledge could get out to the student body before the professors are ready to officially present it. But I think I can trust you, yes I do.”
Dinky nodded solemnly, placing a hoof over her heart in a silent promise. “Can you use any of these spells?” she asked, tilting her head with curiosity. “I want to see one.”
“I can do better than that, yes I can,” Sunbeam said excitedly. “I can help you cast one yourself.”
“I’m not sure I’m ready for that,” Dinky said nervously. “I don’t have any instructions, and I haven’t seen any demonstration. I don’t even know how to tap into this alternate energy.”
A tiny, glowing spark appeared on the tip of Sunbeam’s horn. Slowly, he leaned forward until the tip of his horn just barely made contact with Dinky’s. The filly jumped a bit at the contact, but soon calmed, as she realized Sunbeam was simply sending her a weak magical signal.
“Learn to recognize this energy,” Sunbeam said quietly. “Try to find the same energy within yourself. It’s there, but it’s buried deeper than your regular magic. Try to bring it to the surface.”
Dinky’s usual aura surrounded her horn almost automatically. She squeezed her eyes shut, concentrating to find a trace of the strange energy Sunbeam had given her a tiny sample of. For several minutes, she stood still, making no progress, but then a faint feeling seemed to awaken in the recesses of her mind: an energy like the one Sunbeam used.
Dinky attempted to bring it forth into her horn and was immediately met with a bizarre sensation. The magic seemed to fight back, as if it didn’t want to be channeled, but instead preferred to remain tucked away deep inside the filly’s head. Dinky fought the force, but it seemed to be an almost physical effort to drag the energy toward her horn.
“Yes, yes, yes,” Sunbeam said eagerly. “It’s difficult, I know. But it’s your own magic! Bring it forth!”
With a final tug, Dinky pulled the strange energy into her horn. The effect was immediate; the yellow aura flickered and wavered, and sparks flew as its shade darkened. In a matter of seconds, the sunny color had been replaced with an aura of pulsing black and deep purple.
Dinky swayed where she stood; she wasn’t sure if it was from the magic itself or the effort of summoning it, but she felt quite disoriented and dizzy. The filly let herself relax to try to regain her usual composure, and rolled her eyes up to stare curiously at her horn. Sunbeam looked positively thrilled.
“Bravo, Dinky! You’ve brought forth the alternative magic, yes you have!”
Dinky looked back at Sunbeam, and noticed that her vision was gradually becoming tinted with purple. She glanced at her reflection in a grimy mirror on the wall and jumped back when she saw the image it showed; wispy violet energy surrounded her eyes, similar to the purple writhing together with black surrounding her horn.
“W-what is this?” she asked, her voice wavering as she shook her head in vain to try to dissipate the fog in her eyes. “What’s it doing to me? It feels strange!”
“There’s nothing to fear, no there is not,” Sunbeam said quickly. “The magic’s color simply indicates you’ve tapped into the alternate energy, and the color you see around your eyes is sort of like an exhaust outlet for the excess energy built up, yes it is.”
Sunbeam lit his own horn, and quickly changed his blue aura to an identical black one with a clearly well-practiced mental process.
“It doesn’t bother you?” Dinky asked weakly, slumping down into a sitting position. “As soon as it reached my horn, it felt like it started battling to get out of my head. I can hardly think straight.”
“It requires practice, yes it does,” Sunbeam said, nodding sagely. “Your body will adjust with time. I understand that it’s difficult at first; now you understand why it is better that the whole student body doesn’t know about these spells just yet, yes you do.”
Dinky gave her whole body another shake, and seemed to get a little more control over herself. The magic was manageable, but it felt nothing like her usual magic; while that was an almost comforting feeling of internal power, this felt more like a force with a mind of its own, eager to leap from her horn and do whatever it pleased.
“Now, try using it to interact with an object,” Sunbeam suggested. “You can use the book on the desk over there as a target, yes you can”
Dinky glanced at the book. Her head was pounding with an urge to direct the magic, so she quickly surrounded the tome with the inky energy.
“Oh, and be careful,” Sunbeam started. “This type of magic can sometimes be—”
Dinky jumped when, instead of the usual soft hum, her magic made a loud crackle like lightning as it shot forward. The book was hit with a tremendous force; the pages were torn loose and swirled around the room, while the binding collided with the far wall and collapsed in a bent heap.
“…extremely volatile. Yes it can,” Sunbeam deadpanned.
Dinky quickly forced the magic to shut off. The strange light around her horn and eyes flickered out, and relief washed over all of her senses. She glanced at Sunbeam nervously. “Uh… I don’t think these spells are entirely safe,” she squeaked.
“They are perfectly fine when properly controlled, yes they are,” Sunbeam said confidently. “You didn’t know what to expect there, but I’m sure you’ll be fine next time. Nothing will happen, no it won’t.”
Dinky bit her lip. “And… what do we do if something does happen?”
Sunbeam placed a comforting hoof across Dinky’s shoulders. “We’re in a building full of the most powerful professional mages in Equestria, yes we are” he reminded her. “If there’s one place where it’s okay to practice even unusual magic like this, it’s here.”
“Well…” Dinky tapped a hoof to her chin. “I don’t know about this, Sunbeam. These spells are sort of unpleasant to use. I’m not sure if I want to keep it up.”
Sunbeam pouted. “The discomfort will fade with time, yes it will!” he insisted. “Please, Dinky. You’re the only pony I can practice this with, yes you are. We might even discover something new, and I can report it to my professor! You’ll be helping to advance what could become important magical knowledge for all unicorns someday, yes you will!”
Sunbeam gave Dinky a hopeful smile. She sighed and returned the gesture. “I can’t say no to that. Just please help me to control it while we experiment.”
“You are in capable hooves, yes you are,” Sunbeam said, grinning. “Now, call forth that magic again. Practice makes perfect, yes it does.”
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As promised, Dinky held her tongue when Clarity inevitably asked about Sunbeam. The grey filly persisted, but finally gave up when Dinky left campus for the weekend. By the time she returned on Monday, both of them had mostly forgotten about it.
“What do you think we’re doing in Practical Magic today?” Honeydew asked as the three fillies made their way to the first class of the week.
“Professor Morningstar said we’re starting something new this week,” Dinky said.
“About time,” Clarity grumbled, rolling her eyes. “We’ve been doing different levitation and manipulation drills for weeks now. It’s starting to get a little tedious.”
Just before the fillies reached the classroom, Scuffle appeared from around the corner at the other end of the hall. He gave them a level stare, but remained silent as he trotted into the classroom. Dinky and her friends waited a few moments before they entered the room.
“Good morning, everypony!” Professor Morningstar said cheerily. “We are only a few weeks from the halfway point of the term, so I think it’s time we introduce another topic. After all, the goal is for you to be proficient at at least four of our five major topics by the end of the term. So today, we’re going to learn to cast illusion spells!”
Dinky smirked as Clarity jumped a bit in her seat. Illusions were Clarity’s favorite type of spell, after all.
“Now,” Professor Morningstar continued, turning to his chalkboard, “as I said on the first day of class, illusions are simply modified illumination spells. You must manipulate light to change the appearance of an object, without changing the composition of the object itself. It requires very little input of magic to cast an illusion properly, but what is used must be directed properly. The more precise the spellcasting process, the more convincing the illusion.”
The professor’s horn glowed with rich, hazel colored magic. The air next to him wavered, and suddenly a second Professor Morningstar flickered into view.
“This, for example, is an illusion,” the real professor said, running his hoof through the fake to prove it wasn’t solid. “Unicorns have made illusory doppelgangers for ages, with a wide range of uses. Of course, creating a holographic replica of yourself is a fairly complicated spell compared to many other illusions, but all of them are cast in essentially the same way: by changing the strength and position of the magic within the horn to facilitate the proper changes in the wavelength of the magically produced light.”
He looked around the room, and nodded when he was convinced everypony understood. “Well, there isn’t much else to say until you’ve had a little practice,” he announced. “There are additional instructions on bending light available in your textbook. I recommend starting with color change spells; all you have to do is change the wavelength to cast those. No refraction or other more complicated illusion techniques are needed.”
Dinky, Clarity, and Honeydew were among the first students to rise from their desks and proceed to the practice area.
“This is it, girls,” Clarity said, excited. “I’ve always been good at detecting illusions, so hopefully I’m just as good at casting them!”
She glanced hopefully at her bare flank. “I probably shouldn’t get my hopes up, but this might be the day I finally get my Cutie Mark!”
“Then you can go first,” Dinky suggested. “Go ahead; try to change my coat color.”
“What color do you want?” Clarity asked.
“Make her look like me,” Honeydew suggested, giggling.
Clarity laughed. “That’s a good idea! I can’t wait to see how Dinky looks in pink and green.”
Clarity’s horn glowed with the light of a typical illumination spell. She lowered her head, pointing the light at Dinky.
“Okay, now I just need to bend the light a little,” she mumbled allowed. “Decrease the wavelength to a lighter red…”
Dinky grinned as she watched her own coat move backwards through the color spectrum, turning from its usual purple to blue, then green, yellow, orange, red, and finally, Honeydew’s signature pale pink.
Clarity frowned. “Well, that sorta worked,” she said, “but I changed your mane, too. I guess there’s a way to put different light intensity on different parts of the target?”
“Very intuitive, Clarity,” said Professor Morningstar, stepping up next to the filly. “It may be a little difficult at first, but it’s possible to cast many different colors and intensities of light at once.”
Clarity tried to modify the spell, but each time she shifted the color in Dinky’s mane, the coat changed as well. After several tries, she managed to offset the shades of each by a small amount, but Dinky’s mane remained closer to pink than the desired pale green.
“May I offer a suggestion?” Professor Morningstar asked. “Treat this a bit like you treat levitation drills, and focus portions of your magic on multiple objects. Instead of treating Dinky as a single object, think of her coat as one object and her mane and tail as another.”
Clarity smiled sheepishly. “Oh yeah. I should have thought of that.”
Her horn flashed brighter for an instant, and Dinky smiled as her mane rapidly changed colors until it was green.
“We’re like twins!” Honeydew laughed, leaning up against Dinky.
“Impressive,” the professor remarked. “As usual, Clarity, your aptitude for this is almost as impressive as your sister’s.”
Dinky noticed Clarity flinch a bit at being compared to Lucid again, and the magic ceased, returning Dinky’s fur to normal. Clarity seemed to quickly shake off her discomfort, though.
“Well, I need to offer some advice to the other students,” Professor Morningstar continued. “But before I go, can I ask you girls a favor?”
“Sure,” the fillies said in unison.
“You three always seem to catch on in this class very quickly,” the stallion said. “Would you mind working with a student who has been having some difficulty? Perhaps having a few partners to practice with would do more good than me just explaining things.”
Dinky shrugged. “Well, Clarity certainly has this spell down,” she said, grinning at her friend, “and I think Honeydew and I can figure it out. I guess we could help another student.”
“Excellent,” the professor said cheerfully. “I’ll send Scuffle over to work with you three in just a moment.”
He trotted away, oblivious to the sudden change in the fillies’ expressions.
“Nice going, Dinky,” Clarity said, rolling her eyes. “You just agreed to have us help Scuffle.”
“How was I supposed to know it was him?” Dinky said defensively. “All the professor said was ‘a student’.”
Honeydew began backing slowly away from her friends. “Maybe I should, uh, go to another group,” she whimpered.
“Scuffle won’t try anything with the professor standing right there,” Dinky assured her. “Let’s see what happens. If it gets to be too much of a problem, you can go.”
Honeydew swallowed hard, but she nodded.
Scuffle’s tan mane was just visible above the other foals as he pushed his way through the crowd. He trotted up to Dinky and her friends, frowning.
“You three again,” he said testily. “I can’t say I’m excited.”
“Neither are we,” Dinky responded. “But think about this for a second. We’re in class right now; there’s no way your brothers can catch you here. If what you said yesterday was true, then don’t you think it’d be easier for everypony if you just cooperate and practice with us today?”
Scuffle’s tail twitched. “You can’t mention it to anypony, got it?”
“We won’t,” Clarity insisted.
The colt sighed. “Alright, fine, I guess. Let me just sit here and watch you three work before I do anything, though.”
Scuffle sat down and remained silent.
“Um… okay,” Dinky said. “Here Honeydew, let me try changing your colors next.”
For a short while, Dinky continued to practice the spell on Honeydew. Scuffle appeared to be paying attention, but still didn’t participate.
“Alright, Honeydew,” Dinky said. “Your turn to try casting the spell.”
Honeydew nodded. “Who should I cast it on? Clarity?”
“Cast it on me.”
It was the first time Scuffle had spoken since sitting down. Honeydew slowly turned to face him, looking confused and a little worried.
“What?” he asked. “I’m stuck here anyway. I might as well be involved, right?”
Honeydew chewed her lip, avoiding Scuffle’s gaze.
Scuffle shrugged. “Fine. Have it your way, Honeydew. I’ll just sit here and do nothing.”
Honeydew’s ears twitched as Scuffle spoke her name. “…alright, stand up,” she said quietly, still not looking directly at the colt. “What color do you want?”
Scuffle shook his head indecisively. “I dunno. Blue or something.”
Magic surrounded Honeydew’s horn, and she focused the light on the colt. The faint element of red that accented Scuffle’s brown coat became more prominent, but instead of changing to orange, it lightened to pink.
Scuffle gasped, clearly appalled by the color. “Wrong way!” he yelled. “I can’t be pink! Change it now or I’m gonna—”
Honeydew squeaked and scrambled backwards, frightened by the outburst. Scuffle cut himself off when he realized what he’d done.
“Forget it,” he mumbled. “Maybe I shouldn’t be involved.”
From her hiding place behind Dinky and Clarity, Honeydew nodded in agreement.
“I think maybe we should give you a turn,” Clarity said, stepping forward. “You can use me as your test pony.”
Scuffle laughed. “Yeah right. I’m awful in this class. I can’t cast an illusion spell.”
“Wow, real positive attitude you have there,” Dinky said. “At least give it a try.”
“You can cast an illumination spell at least, right?” Clarity asked.
Scuffle nodded. “Enough, I guess,” he said. “It’s not the brightest, but it works.”
“Good. Do that now.”
Scuffle rolled his eyes and surrounded his horn with slate blue magic that gave off a glow of unimpressive intensity.
“Good, now just compress the wavelength,” Clarity said.
Scuffle looked bewildered.
“Just focus the majority of the spell closer to the tip of the horn, instead of at the core,” Clarity explained. “It’s not hard.”
Scuffle grunted and tried to refocus the magic. Nothing happened.
“You need a little more power,” Dinky chimed in. “You have to give it enough energy to change the light wavelength.”
Scuffle gritted his teeth and unleashed a much larger burst of energy. Clarity’s mane turned brilliant purple instantaneously.
Scuffle’s mouth dropped open a bit. “Did I do that?” he sputtered.
“I told you it wasn’t hard,” Clarity said. “Now do the same thing, but focus the magic equally along your whole horn, instead of just at the tip.”
It took Scuffle a moment to figure out how to comply with the request, but once he did, Clarity’s mane quickly shifted through a rainbow of colors, coming to rest at bright red.
“Oh,” he said bluntly. “I guess this isn’t a big deal after all.”
The colt sat back down. “You three work on it a little more, and then maybe I’ll try again,” he said.
Scuffle sat alone, changing the color of his own coat and looked particularly pleased, while the fillies went back to their own practice.
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All four foals had made progress by the end of class. Dinky, Clarity, and Honeydew had gone beyond just two colors and managed to start creating illusional patterns of stripes and polka dots. Scuffle, after some more coaching from Dinky and Clarity, had managed to change the color of Dinky’s mane and coat separately for a short time, which for him was a considerable accomplishment.
Dinky and her friends walked out of the classroom, and Scuffle tagged along just behind them. “Hey, you three,” he called. “We need to have a quick talk before we go our separate ways.”
The fillies stopped and waited for Scuffle to catch up.
“So, uh…” Scuffle started, “It’s kind of unusual for me to actually learn the spells we study in class on the first day.”
He looked left and right to ensure nopony was nearby before continuing.
“Thanks for the help,” he mumbled.
“You’re welcome,” Dinky said. “It wasn’t terrible working with you either.”
“You’re still a grump, but I guess that’s better than a bully,” Clarity said wryly.
“Oh, that reminds me,” Scuffle said, “I was thinking about what happened on Friday. I guess we need to figure out what we’re gonna do now.”
“We’re not gonna do anything,” Dinky pointed out. “Are you going to leave us alone from now on?”
“Yeah, I guess,” Scuffle said. “But my brothers still need to think I’m tough, so you three should try not to interact with me at all. If you do, I have to retaliate. It’s the only way.”
“You don’t need to worry about that,” Honeydew squeaked from behind the protective wall formed by her friends’ bodies. “We’ll stay far away!”
“Speaking of which, Honeydew,” Scuffle continued, “could you come here for a second?”
Dinky and Clarity stepped aside to let Honeydew through, but the pink filly didn’t move, so Scuffle strode up to her instead.
“So, like I was sayin’ on Friday,” he said quietly, his ears drooping shamefully. “I guess I didn’t realize just how much of an influence I was having on you.”
Honeydew said nothing. Scuffle again looked up and down the hall, ensuring that the four of them were the only ponies present.
“For what it’s worth… I’m sorry.”
Honeydew’s ear twitched, and for a fraction of a second she locked eyes with Scuffle before once again averting her gaze.
“Yeah, that’s about the reaction I was expecting,” Scuffle said, smirking. “That’s all I have to say. You three get going before somepony gets suspicious.”
Satisfied with his momentary attempt at kindness, Scuffle trotted away, attempted to round the nearest corner, and promptly crashed into two ponies much bigger than he was coming in the other direction. Scuffle scrambled backwards as soon as he recognized his brothers.
“Uh, hey bros,” he said, his voice rising about an octave above normal. “I thought you two were still in Advanced Enchantments class…”
“Professor Luster let us out early,” Frosty said, grinning devilishly. “We came to meet you when you got out of class, but it looks like you were a little busy having a chat with these fillies.”
Scorch stepped in front of Scuffle and looked at Dinky and her friends, who looked just as shocked as Scuffle. “Who woulda’ thought,” the red colt said. “Here I was convinced maybe you were actually toughening up, but you’ve just been cuttin’ deals with these fillies the whole time, haven’t you?”
“No!” Scuffle cried, looking frantically around as if searching for an escape route. “I mean, I’ve been driving them crazy, stealing their stuff—”
“—and then apologizing when nopony’s around to hear,” Frosty said. “You almost had us fooled, Scuff. I guess we should have known better though; in hindsight, there was no way a softie like you could have ever lived up to ponies like us.”
The twins laughed as Scuffle seemed to shrink before them. “Come on, little bro,” Scorch chuckled. “Let’s go ‘talk’ about what you’re doing to your reputation. Maybe we can ‘motivate’ you to behave like a colt who deserves to be in charge.”
Scuffle’s pupils shrank to pinprics. Frosty grabbed the young colt by the tail with magic, and the twins dragged their brother away. Scuffle cast Dinky and her friends one last terrified look.
“Help!” he mouthed desperately.
Scuffle continued to grasp fruitlessly at the carpet before the twins dragged him around the corner and out of sight.