//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Magic Lessons // Story: To Deny Thyself // by Keeper of time RD //------------------------------// The week that followed his first day had taught Konton many things. Among them was how boring the days when the crusaders didn’t invited him to join them for the day were compared to the days when they did. Konton had once given himself the title ‘traveler’ because he learned that, in his few short years, he had seen more of equestria then most ponies saw in their entire lives. But that was just the problem, all he had done was see places, not once had he ever stopped to realize what there was to do in the many towns and small cities he had seen. Now having only spent four days with the crusaders he’d already managed to ride a zip line, race scooters, play tennis, get chased off a tennis court, (through no fault of his own) build a sail boat, go swimming, and play mannequin for a dress maker. Though that last one seemed to be more along the line of repaying Sweetie Belle’s older sister for the fabric they took to make the sail for the boat then an actual crusading activity. “Come on Scootaloo! You’re just wana build the catapult now, to use him!” Apple Bloom’s voice came from the schoolyard ahead. “It’s not using him if he wants to help!” The pegasus yelled back. Only Sweetie Belle seemed to notice Konton walking up to the schoolhouse, and silently greeted him with a wave and a smile, replacing the frown she had from watching her friends argue. Sweetie’s actions didn’t go unnoticed, Apple Bloom turned to greet the colt as well. “Howdy Konton! Did ya hear what we’re talk’n about?” “From what I heard you are worrying too much that Scootaloo is just using me like a mercenary and not caring about me at all. However that’s the best way to treat me. I don’t want you to miss me or anything when I have to leave in a few months, so it’s better to think of me as a mere ally of the moment who you can walk away from without a second thought. In the end my uncle will finish his work here and I will have to walk away whether I want to or not. As for you Scootaloo, building a catapult sounds like fun so I’d be happy to help.” Konton spoke these words as much for himself as for the crusaders. And when he had finished Scootaloo was the only one smiling, having just been vindicated. “Ah hadn’t thought about that.” “I know, it’s okay. I’ve seen enough to know your life is more… permanent, no matter what happens in the end you always come home to that farm of yours. Even I made the mistake of making friends when I first moved in with my uncle, before I realized his job kept him moving all over. But I got real tiered of ripping my own heart out every time I had to leave them behind.” Now not even Scootaloo was smiling. “You don’t have to feel bad for me, I’m use to it now.” Konton added, knowing it was only half-true, but he didn’t want the crusaders to feel bad on his account. “Yeah… anyway I think I know where we can get most of the stuff to make a catapult.” Scootaloo said, trying to change the topic to something more cheerful. “Great! I’ll help anyway I can!” Konton seized the opportunity to change the topic. * * * * * * * Konton had forgotten that it was magic kindergarten day until Sweetie Belle had remained seated at recess time. He was settling back into his seat when Cheerilee spoke. “I have wonderful news, I was able to get a magic teacher in for you today.” As she finished there was a flash of light and when it faded a lavender unicorn mare with a purple mane was standing at the front of the class. “Twilight!” all the students except Konton greeted the unicorn that apparently needed no introduction. After formally introducing herself as Twilight Sparkle the mare proceeded to give a lecture on the basics of magic mixing in a multitude of spells to demonstrate everything from levitation to conjuring to illusion spells. She even took the time to explain teleportation, despite being an advanced spell nopony in the room but her could possibly comprehend. “Okay everypony line up, it looks like we have time for everypony to give one spell a try.” Twilight announced. All the students lined up in front of Twilight, while the elder unicorn herself summoned up two illusions of the diagrams for the levitation and illumination spells. When it was somepony’s turn they would point at one of the diagrams and Twilight would start casting that spell with an illusion spell wrapped on top of it so there was a complete diagram of the spell’s energy flow start to finish. They would try to duplicate the spell for a little bit, then get tiered and move aside so the next pony could try. When it was Konton’s turn he pointed at the illumination diagram and took his place under the makeshift tent. He curled his brow, closed his eyes and mimicked the physical strain he always saw from the other unicorns when they tried to cast the spell. However he didn’t even try to pull on the magics inside him let alone bend them into anything resembling a spell. When he opened his eyes, he frowned as he saw the look on Twilight’s face. She was a unicorn, and he knew that she knew he hadn’t even tried. But she said nothing as he walked back to his seat, so he breathed a sigh of relief. * * * * * * * Sweetie Belle noticed that Konton had been uneasy since magic kindergarten lessons and now that she considered him a friend she didn’t feel like she had to be shy around him anymore. With the last class of the day having just ended she saw her chance to ask him about it. “Um, Konton? Is something wrong?” “Probably.” “Anything we can do to help?” “Probably not.” Sweetie Belle shot a concerned look to her fellow crusaders and followed Konton out. Scootaloo just shrugged it off and led Apple Bloom off toward town. Sweetie Belle wondered why her pegasus friend was so keen on letting the colt keep his emotional distance when it seem so obvious to Sweetie that deep down inside he desperately wanted real friends. Sweetie Belle knew that feeling all too well, as it was the one she had felt before becoming friends with Scootaloo. Yet the same pegasus that had rescued her from that loneliness and despair was now turning a blind eye to it from Konton. Sweetie Belle promised herself to ask Scootaloo about that later, but right now she needed to find out what was bothering Konton. However, before she could question the colt further on the matter an interruption intervened. An interruption named Twilight Sparkle. “Hello Konton.” “Um… hello?” “Can I talk to you about your performance in magic class?” “Can I say ‘no’?” “Not really.” “Then I’m listening.” “I know you weren’t even trying in magic class, you know it, and since I told Cheerilee she knows it. And after talking to her on the matter, we decided that I should give you a few private magic lessons.” “Aww, I want private magic lessons.” Sweetie Belle interrupted. “Perfect! She wants your lessons, I don’t. Teacher her, bye!” Konton said quickly before starting to run off. “Or I could teach both of you.” Twilight suggested in a tone of voice that made it clear he wasn’t allowed to say no. “It was worth a shot.” Konton mutter before bowing his head and following the elder unicorn obediently, Sweetie Belle trotting happily at his side. “So much for the catapult.” He heard Scootaloo lament from where she and Apple Bloom were waiting. He mouthed a ‘sorry’ and tried to shrug a ‘nothing I can do about this’ back. His friends seemed to nod an ‘it’s okay’ back before heading off themselves. * * * * * * * Soon enough the three unicorns were at the town library, Sweetie Belle was now focused on the illusionary diagram of the illumination spell. She felt Twilight’s magic flowing through her nudging her own magic, trying to give it direction and focus. A small shower of green and purple sparks were coming out of Sweetie’s horn, “I can’t finish the spell for you, you need to complete it yourself or sparks is all you’ll get.” The master said. The filly nodded, groaned under the mental strain and tried to get the magics flowing inside her horn to match the diagram perfectly. “There you go, that’s the right direction.” Twilight said as a faint green glow appeared around the younger unicorn’s horn. The purple glow of her own horn faded and the sparks from Sweetie’s turned pure green when Twilight withdrew her help but a reassuring smile was all Sweetie Belle needed to continue on her own. Content that her first, and more importantly cooperative, student would be busy for a while Twilight turned her attention to the colt sitting off to the side. “Konton, was it? Care to tell me why you won’t even try to learn magic?” “I don’t do magic.” “Don’t? As in, can but won’t?” she asked eyeing the colt’s cutie mark. “I don’t do magic.” He repeated. “Why not?” “Because I don’t want to.” “You don’t want to learn magic…” Twilight muttered, clearly stunned by the response. “But you’re a unicorn. Using magic is part of our nature. It’s part of who we are!” Twilight was still trying to grasp the concept of a unicorn that didn’t want to use magic. In all her years even the unicorns with the weakest magic still liked the magic they could wield. She opened her mouth to try another way to convince the colt but was cut off by a squeaky voice. “Umm… Twilight I think I messed something up.” A glance in Sweetie Belle’s direction showed a small fire had started just in front of the filly. A purple glow surrounded Twilight’s horn and a stream of water encased in a similar glow came flowing out of the kitchen levitating its way to the small fire and dousing it. “Let me guess, your first time you accidentally burned the house down.” Twilight concluded. “No! Maybe! I don’t know.” Konton immediately denied before correcting himself unprompted. Twilight noticed that the colt’s eyes were darting between herself and Sweetie Belle and realized there was something that he didn’t want to say in the presence of his friend and yet he didn’t seem to want to lie in the presence of his friend either. “It’s okay, we all make mistakes.” Twilight said, hoping to coax more information out of the colt. “Yeah it’s not your fault you didn’t have somepony like Twilight around to fix your mistake,” Sweetie Belle added, blushing as she motioned to the scorch mark on the library floor. “You’re not going to leave me alone until I show you why I hate my magic, are you?” Konton sighed. Twilight nodded to confirm his suspicions. “Fine, but not here,” he conceded. * * * * * * * “Are you sure you’re not just leading us on a long walk?” Twilight inquired, as they had been walking so long they had reached the edged of town. “Fine I guess that will do,” Konton said, pointing to a small hill just beyond what seemed to be the last house in this direction. “Stay back if you want to live,” he added matter-of-factly as they past the house. The colt’s warning made Twilight and Sweetie freeze in their tracks and trade nervous glances as Konton continued his way up the hill. Once atop he surveyed the hill. It wasn’t very high, only ten feet or so at its peak and maybe only twenty yards or so wide abut it would have to do. He frowned at the house that was much closer then he would have preferred, “If anything happens to that house you’re not blaming me for it!” he shouted to the two unicorns standing next to it. “Fine, just show me your magic already!” Twilight shouted back. With one last look around, Konton was satisfied that nopony was in range and with only two witnesses he could show Twilight what she needed to see to get her to leave him alone. Spying a few rocks at his hooves, he took a deep breath and pulled at the magic inside, making it flow. Twilight had pushed Sweetie Belle up against the house and stood beside, her pinning the filly in most protected way possible to observe the demonstration. As Sweetie looked on from her place of relative safety, she saw a bright green glow surround Konton’s horn and an identical glow envelop several rocks, pulling them up to levitate near the colt. “Wow he’s good!” Sweetie Belle said. “Yes, though I still don’t see what that warning was about.” Twilight pondered aloud. Soon Sweetie Belle noticed something was wrong and the tensing muscles she felt in the elder unicorn pinning her to the house proved Twilight saw it too. Konton’s eyes darted about in a panic as more and more rocks and random clumps of dirt were caught up in the colt’s levitation spell. The glow around his horn was growing brighter as a pained look appeared on his face. Konton gave a small cry and the green magic glow suddenly surrounded his whole body, covering his eyes in light, lifting him off the ground and random blasts of magic came shooting out of the field surrounding him. Random spots on the ground were bursting into flames or freezing under a sheet of ice. An arc of lightning dug a small trench not far from Sweetie and Twilight. The filly’s view of the destruction was suddenly tinted purple as the elder unicorn cast a shield spell around the two of them, restoring a feeling of safety to the filly. “Is-is that? Eep!” Sweetie Belle started to ask only to cut herself off when a small blast of fire struck nearby. “A magic storm like what happened to me at my entrance exam? Yes. Only I was firing off random arcane spells, he however, seems more attuned to fire off random elemental spells.” Twilight anticipated and answered Sweetie’s unfinished question. A thorny vine spring up near the contorting form of Konton, only for the plant to be frozen, then shattered by a lightning blast, only to have the ground underneath it turn to lava, incinerating any last trace of the vine. “Okay, enough is enough.” Twilight declared. “What are you doing?” Sweetie’s voice squeaked as Twilight stepped away. “I’m putting a stop to this before somepony gets hurt. Now stay back” The purple unicorn answered as she carefully split the shield spell into two spheres. Sweetie Belle watched as Twilight started up the hill, pushing against the wild magics emanating from the colt at the top. A stray fireball brought Twilight to her knees. Her horn flared to life as she strengthened her shield spell and pressed on, but the closer she got the more powerful the random blasts of magic became. She had made it half way up the hill when a miniature twister pinned her down long enough for a lightning bolt to cut away her shield. Exposed, the winds sent Twilight tumbling to the base of the hill. Twilight panicked for a moment when she realized she had landed near were Sweetie Belle should’ve been but wasn’t. Her panic faded a second later when she spotted that the filly had retreated and put the whole house between herself and the rampant magics atop the hill. Twilight recast her shield spell and prepared to make another attempt at reaching Konton to quell the magic storm coming from him. But as she turned to face the hill the colt gave a short cry and the magic aura around him collapsed, forming a sphere of green light so bright that it obscured him, the light then exploded in spectacular fashion. When the light from the final blast had faded the hill was gone and in its place was a crater almost as deep as the hill had been high. The crater itself had a wide array of elemental blast marks, making the crater seem as if a full-scale unicorn war had been fought there. In the center of it all, lying motionless amid the destruction, was Konton. “Is he alright?” Sweetie asked, as she crept up to the edge of the crater and saw her friend. A magenta glow surrounded the colt and as he floated up toward Twilight she breathed a sigh of relief, “I can feel him breathing on his own. It’s most likely that he’s just suffering from magic fatigue.” “Magic fatigue?” “As unicorns magic is a part of us, and just like anypony who depletes their body of energy will pass out from fatigue any unicorn that depletes themselves of their magic will pass out from magic fatigue. All he needs is some rest and he’ll be fine,” Twilight said as she placed the unconscious colt on her back. Twilight’s eye turned to the crater and the surrounding area. Aside from a shattered window on the house the bulk of the destruction was limited to the giant hole in the ground. The gears turning in the purple unicorn’s head and she called out, “Rainbow Dash!” as she began to fix the broken window with her magic. Sweetie Belle was still trying to figure out how Rainbow Dash had anything to do with the situation when the pegasus showed up. “Wow Twilight! That’s pretty impressive, but why would you blow a hole in the ground?” “First off, it was an accident. Second I didn’t. Finally while I can fix a window or two easily enough conjuring up an entire hill is a bit beyond me, so I was hoping you could get some rain clouds and fill this in. With any luck if anypony owns this land they won’t mind having a pond instead of a hill.” “Heh, sure thing Twilight, there’s plenty of lakes in Ponyville I’m sure nopony will notice one more,” Rainbow Dash said chuckling, trying to keep a straight face. In a flash the pegasus disappeared only to return a few seconds latter with a rain cloud. With the situation effectively handled Twilight turned to take Konton to a more appropriate place to rest. Though nothing been said to her Sweetie Belle felt compelled to follow. * * * * * * * When Konton opened his eyes all he saw was a wall of fabric before them. A slight stretching of his limbs told him he was lying on a bed that felt way to different to be his own and that he must had had a fitful night’s sleep as he had wrapped himself up in the sheets. “Twilight, I think he’s waking up,” an unfamiliar voice said, sounding like it belonged to a young male speaker. “Thank you spike, Spike,” Twilight responded in a low voice, with the sound of her hoof-steps signaling that she had entered the room. Konton couldn’t remember exactly were he had heard it but he did recall being told that the assistant librarian was a baby dragon named ‘Spike’ and with Twilight’s words it was a safe bet that the previous speaker was said dragon. The pause that followed Twilight’s words soon made it clear that she didn’t want to rouse Konton before he was ready to admit being awake. The colt shifted slightly and broke the silence from within his fabric cocoon, “Now that you’ve seen why I don’t do magic, will you leave me alone?” “If anything isn’t the fact that your magic storms are dangerous all the more reason to teach you to control your magic properly?” “Magic storms? They have a name?” “Not really, unicorns who accidentally release all their magic at once in an uncontrolled fashion are so rare that there is no technical name for the phenomena. That’s just what I chose to call it after it happened to me.” Even through Konton was still wrapped in the bed sheets Twilight could see his ears perk up so she continued. “That’s right, when I was your age I was enrolled in Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns. During my entrance exam there was an explosion outside and the magic flowing off that blast made me lose control of my own magic. And even though I was only shooting off arcane spells to vent the magic I still managed to do quite the number on the exam room. Hmm, I wonder if my magic storm would have ended the same way if Celestia hadn’t stopped me, a blast like that… oh… would have killed the examiners… Spike… my parents.” The increasing dread in Twilight’s voice told Konton that she was slowly guessing the truth, and that now was the time to drive home his point of view. “Now do you see why I hate my magic?” He growled, “I just wanted to help and I killed them. I killed them, I destroyed everything good in my life with one mistake! EVERY THING!” Konton shouted, as he ripped off the covers to show Twilight the pain and rage she made him feel forcing him to relive the memories of this topic. His plan backfired. The look of anger and sorrow on Konton’s face was immediately replaced with a look of horror when he found a set of sad emerald eyes waiting for him beyond the bed sheet’s vale. “Sw-Sweetie Belle. How…” the Colt’s mind was racing to answer his question even as he stumbled over the words to ask it. He had only heard the sound of Twilight’s hoof-steps and that meant there was only one logical explanation. “She hasn’t left your side, not since I pulled you out of that crater you made yesterday,” Twilight answered, noting the colt’s eyes darting back and forth between herself and Sweetie in panicked confusion. If Konton’s heart was still beating he couldn’t feel it. He had blown it, in every town he had ever been in the moment his classmates had learned of the accident that killed his parents he had always been ostracized as ‘killer’, ‘murderer’ or ‘monster’. And now of all the ponies, one of the few in this town who’s opinion of him actually matter to him had just heard the horrible truth. All he could do was to smash his face in to the mattress and whimper, “Please, don’t hate me.” When Sweetie Belle responded it wasn’t with words. Konton felt an unsteady pair of small hooves reach around him, pull him to the edge of the bed and into the kindest hug he had felt in years. A long silent moment passed before she spoke, “It wasn’t your fault. You said yourself that you only wanted to help. It was an accident. A really bad, really serious accident, but still an accident.” When Sweetie had finished speaking, Konton allowed himself the courage to looked up and found Twilight was now by his side too. “And I’ll teach you to control your magic so an accident like that never happens again. Okay?” the elder unicorn said joining the filly in consoling the colt. “Will you keep this a secret? Please?” Konton begged. “Of course,” Twilight and Spike said together “I’ll try,” Sweetie Belle said. “Try?” Konton practically whimpered, his eyes begging for elaboration. “Scootaloo said I need practice keeping secrets because I volunteer too much information sometimes. But I’ll try.” “I’m doomed aren’t I?” Konton lamented, slamming his face back into the mattress. “Well, you should probably go be ‘doomed’ at school, it’s still early enough that if you two hurry, you might make it to class on time.” Twilight took the opportunity of the sudden levity of the moment to suggest. * * * * * * * So far so good, Konton thought to himself. School was almost over and so far Sweetie Belle seemed to be keeping his secret just fine. The only thing that worried him was that during lunch he had spotted Twilight Sparkle speaking with Cheerilee and from the reaction on the schoolteacher’s face it wasn’t hard to guess what the topic had been. The bell finally rang and young ponies made the dash for the freedom offered by the afternoon. With the initial rush out of the way Konton joined the crusaders in heading out as well. They had piled into the red wagon and Scootaloo was about to whisk them off into the afternoon’s activities when they were stopped by a certain purple unicorn, “Hold up a sec. I need to borrow Konton for a while.” “Twilight, why are you here? What are you talking about?” Konton asked, while hopping out of the wagon. “Come now, Konton. You of all ponies should know that. I spoke with Cheerilee about your magic. She’ll be excusing you from magic kindergarten from now on since I’ll be tutoring you myself after class. Come on, I’ve already found the perfect practice area for us.” “Every day?” “All things considered I’d think it best if we tackled your problem as quickly as possible. Don’t you?” Konton could appreciate Twilight’s attempts to be subtle around the crusaders and he didn’t want to continue this conversation any longer in the presence of his friends so he conceded, “Sorry, guess I’ll be busy until the weekend.” “You’re just trying to stop us from making that catapult aren’t you?” Sweetie Belle complained. “Wait? You’re doing what now?” Twilight asked. “Nothing!” Scootaloo and Apple Bloom insisted together. “Making a catapult. And we needed his help to setup the frame.” Sweetie Belle said at the same time. “Well it wasn’t on my to do list before, but I’ll defiantly make sure AJ knows what you three are up to, now.” Twilight concluded. Sweetie hung her head in embarrassment, under the disapproving glare of her two best friends as Scootaloo finally put her wings into her scooter and speed them off. “I’m soo dead,” Konton lamented. Twilight laughed before leading him off in a different direction. * * * * * * * Turned out that Twilight’s ‘perfect practice area’ was an abandon quarry about a half-hours hike from town. Konton certainly saw her reasoning. Not a soul in sight, far enough from town that no one would see them, and desolate enough that adding a few more holes in the ground might go unnoticed. “Okay here’s the plan. That runic circle is for a stabilization spell. I’ll be fueling it from over here, you know, just in case. But that shouldn’t be necessary, you see that’s the same spell Princess Celestia used to help me practice, and I don’t ever recall losing control of my magic when I had that help. So you will start with a quick levitation spell and as soon as its up and running then you’ll shut down flow of magic as quick as you can. Just a quick on-off, got it?” “Got it,” Konton nodded as he walked over to the circle, with a quick dash Twilight had ducked behind a bolder that was more then out of range of any potential magic storm. Once Twilight poked her head out from her safe spot her horn flared to life and so did the circle at the colt’s hooves. He could feel Twilight’s magic in the air around him and more importantly in him. A calming feeling flowed from the spell at his hooves, and coursed through him all the way to the tip of his horn. Twilight gave him a nod as if to let him know that everything was ready. As much as he wanted to just bask in the unnatural calm of the elder unicorn’s spell Konton nodded back and spied a small stone to start the lesson with. He forced a little magic into his horn and targeted the rock, the moment it was surrounded in the green glow of his magic he gave it a tiny nudge. The rock popped upward and Konton immediately turned his attention away from the stone. And focused on shutting down the flow of magic from inside him. The rock fell to the ground but the colt’s horn continued to glow. Not even trying to vent the magic building up in his horn the light quickly spread around his whole body as he tried desperately to block the flow of magic inside him. But to no avail, even with the help of Twilight’s spell allowing even the tiniest amount of magic out had once more opened floodgates that he couldn’t hold back, and Konton didn’t even try to. He had failed and he knew it, failing to see the point in struggling against it he simply accelerated the magic storm by containing as much of the magic as he could in his horn until he couldn’t take the pain anymore. After only a few escaped elemental spells, he saw the massive flash of green light around him as all the magic in him escaped all at once and then he passed out. * * * * * * * A pegasus stallion landed in the plaza, looking about for the target of his mission. His royal guard armor catching the eye of many a passerby. Not surprising considering that the royal guard didn’t usually have business in Ponyvile. He made his way over to the one landmark in this backwater town that was the reason for his presence here, the library. The one thing that nopony had bothered to clarify was what the building was considered these days. Was it still a public building? Or was it a privet residence now that Princess Celestia had decreed that her star pupil be permanently lodged here. The sign looked relatively new and read ‘Twilight’s Library’ which didn’t help settle the matter at all. Ultimately the guard settled for knocking on the door and was soon greeted by a small purple dragon. “I was told Miss Sparkle could be found here.” He said. The young dragon seemed accustom to dealing with royal guards and motioned for the stallion to enter while calling down the unicorn in question. When she arrived the guard stated his reason for being here, “Miss Sparkle. I’m here regarding you’re request of the Canterlot archives.” “Oh good, Spike you tend the library. Come up to my study sir.” With that Twilight turned and headed back up the stairs, while the dragon returned to a bucket of water and a scrub brush were he seemed to be trying to scrub out a scorch mark on the floor. The royal guard quickly followed Twilight to the upper room. Once the door was closed behind them he asked, “I trust you know the protocol regarding books from the restricted section of the archives?” his eyes fixing on a sleeping colt on a nearby bed. “Oh, him. Magic fatigue, he probably won’t wake up until tomorrow.” The stallion released the latch on his saddlebag. A purple glow surrounded the tome that was inside. Technically it was none of his business what the princesses prized student was reading but the guard let curiosity to get the better of him and looked at the title as if floated out of his saddlebag. “Cutie Mark Chronicles?” He mused aloud, truly wondering why such a book would have come from the restricted archive. Twilight set the book on her desk and opened it to the table of contents. “I thought the same thing when I first found it in the restricted archive. In fact there’s a publicly available version of this book, I even have it here in this library. It wasn’t until I came here to Ponyville that I finally realized why the full version of the book is restricted.” “And why is that?” Twilight flipped the pages to the back half of the book and let the pages open to a set of cutie marks that depicted glass bottles with varying skulls, bones or other sinister imagery. A glance to the top of the page revealed the section as ‘poison maker’ cutie marks. “You see there are three girls in this town that are searching for their cutie marks. It wasn’t until I met them that I realized why it might be a good idea to not inspire reckless little fillies and colts like them to try to earn a mark that has no useful purpose in society. Even if a pony’s true talent was poison making it’s far better to make them wait a while and learn to branch out and earn a general chemistry cutie mark or something.” “Yeah I can see that.” The guard agreed, then looking over to the colt on the bed, “I take it he’s the reason I’m here?” “Yes, in addition to the marks that one might consider ‘bad’ the full version of this book also includes…” Twilight flipped the pages to let the book finish her sentence as she opened it to the last section titled ‘unknown cutie marks.’ The royal guard’s eyes darted back to the sleeping colt, taking note of the unusual cutie mark on the foal’s flank. “Ah ha! Here it is, I thought I remembered seeing it in here years ago.” Twilight exclaimed as quietly as her excitement allowed. The guard took note, and while the mark in the colt had white and black fireballs orbiting a green lightning bolt the one in the book had black and white shooting stars orbiting a green lightning bolt. Seeing as even common cutie marks varied it was easy to see the two as variants of the same talent. Seeing as her guest had expressed an interest in the topic Twilight couldn’t help but read the companion entry for the mark aloud, “Unknown mark #37. Research note #1: 300 years since Nightmare Moon’s banishment, I came across a unicorn with this mark, she clamed she didn’t understand its true meaning but that it had appeared the day she first learned, and lost control of, magic. –Celestia” “Research note #2: While I have my suspicions as to the mark’s true nature I don’t have enough to say for sure. I wish I had had more time to look into the matter, however while traveling with the mare she saw fit to use her magic to defend us from mountain lions. The resulting explosion not only scared off the beats and injured me but wound up triggering an avalanche and while seemingly immune to the immense destruction of her own magic that protection didn’t spill over to being crushed by said avalanche. –Celestia… Oh my…” Twilight breathed the last bit, solemnly lowing her head in respect for the pony lost long ago. To the suddenly somber mood in the room Twilight closed the book and returned it to the guard’s saddlebag, “Thank you, you can take it back now.” Was all she managed to say. “So it’s a mark of uncontrollable magic?” He asked at a whisper. “I don’t think so. Knowing Celestia if that’s what she thought she would have put that conclusion in her notes. Besides I refuse to believe that any magic is truly uncontrollable, though I will definitely keep him away from the base of any cliffs.” Twilight whispered with a smile, trying to lighten the mood a little. “Good luck then.” The royal guard said, double checking the tome and securing the strap of his saddlebag. With his task complete he departed. * * * * * * * Cheerilee was setting up a party she was planning for that evening at school for some local celebration, Konton hadn’t really been paying attention when the reason for the party was given. He plugged the wire he had in his mouth into the control box and began moving the speaker it was attached to into place. While trying to slide the speaker into the perfect place for the stage his focus was interrupted. “Konton. Can I ask you something?” Sweetie Belle asked. He looked up mildly startled out of his state of focus setting up random equipment. Why was Sweetie asking that? Was this a conversation between equals or was this a request from the one pony in school that was keeping his secret? He decided to test her and find out which. “If I can ask you something first,” He asked, while resuming setting up the audio equipment. “Um okay.” Sweetie squeaked as she answered. “I’ve noticed Scootaloo practically spies on Rainbow Dash but she seems so content to let me keep my secrets. Why is that?” “That kind of has more to do with Rainbow Dash, Scoot Idolizes her. I doubt there’s anything she doesn’t know about Dash.” “That explains the Dash, but why so respectful toward my secrets?” “Probably because she has plenty of them herself.” “Oh? How so?” Konton asked, moving on to fixing the haphazardly arranged lights somepony has set up over the DJ’s booth. “Well I’ve never been in her house, forget her room. Heh though given the way she decorates her corner of the clubhouse I bet it’s all wonderbolt posters and Rainbow Dash themed arts and crafts. Anyway whenever Apple Bloom or I ask why she never invites us over to her place she just says, ‘there’s stuff there she’s not allowed to show us’ and to ‘just leave it alone.’ So she don’t really hide the fact that she’s keeping secrets from us but she insists they aren’t hers to give away.” “Do you believe her?” “Yeah, she seems kind of sad that she has to keep secrets from me and Apple Bloom when that sort of thing comes up. So yeah I do.” Sweetie Belle’s answers seemed honest enough, so Konton ended his test while subtly blowing a puff of air into the microphone to test it. “Okay you said you had a question, so ask away.” Sweetie hesitated for a moment, her eyes making it clear she had briefly forgotten her question. “Oh! Right, I wanted to know if you were coming to the party this afternoon?” Konton stopped rearranging the colored filters on the stage lights and blinked, confused by the question. “I would think you of all ponies would already know that I can’t come.” “Why not? Wait, why should I know that?” “It’s a weekday, Twilight always makes me do magic practice after school on weekdays, and we both know what happens when I do that. So I’m betting I’ll be out cold at my place or the library this evening, wherever Twilight decides to drop me off after the lesson.” “Oh… Wait Twilight’s still taking you back to the library?” “Yeah I think she managed to talk to my uncle and realized that he doesn’t exactly like me. So I Think she likes to take me back to the library whenever she knows Spike will be there to look after me, since he actually seems to care about me more then my uncle,” Konton explained. As far as he could tell there wasn’t any electronic equipment left to set up for the party so he just stepped back and waited for Sweetie to release him from the conversation. “Oh, um, I guess we’ll see you on the weekend and do some crusading, or something,” was her response once she realized that explanation was over, and her voice was filled with disappointment. Then the filly just hunger her head and started to walk off, the look on her face making it clear she wanted to say something more but seemed to think it was now moot. Then a loud voice caught both foals attention, “Hey!” A quick glance showed that the voice wasn’t directed at them but their teacher. “Oh, hello Vinyl, thank you again for volunteering to DJ for us tonight.” “Hey, no prob. I just wanted to thank you for setting up my stuff. You usually make me set it up myself.” Mrs. Cheerilee seemed surprised by the news as her eyes darted to the set up audio equipment. “That’s odd, I didn’t tell anypony to set that up.” “Well whoever did it they did an awesome job, so thanks for saving me the trouble.” The shades clad unicorn complemented. “Wait you set all that up without permission?” Sweetie whispered. “Apparently, don’t suppose you can keep that secret too?” Konton whispered back. Sweetie Belle nodded and the two slipped away unnoticed. * * * * * * * Konton looked out at the abandoned quarry, it now had so many craters that anypony who saw it would be convinced a major war just took place here. His earlier conversation with Sweetie Belle was still fresh in his mind. The more he thought about it the more he realized how his life had become a blur. And as much as the allure of finally learning to control his magic enticed him, he decided it just wasn’t worth the price anymore. “Umm Twilight, Can this be our last magic lesson?” he asked, a hit of pleading in his tone. “If we ever figure this out any lesson could be our last…” Twilight said matter-of-factish before picking up on the colt’s tone “…Wait is something wrong?” “It’s just that I’ve spent the better part of a month knocked out thanks to these lessons. I don’t want to just wake up go to school, go to magic lessons, and then spend the rest of the day knocked out until it’s time to do it all over again. It’s like the weekend is the only time I’m free to have any fun! I don’t care if I never get to use magic like a normal unicorn, I just want my life back!” Konton’s lament gave Twilight pause. “I’m sorry, I… With how little of my time this takes from me, I guess I got so caught up in trying to figure this out that I didn’t stop to think how much of your time this was taking away from you.” With an apologetic smile the purple unicorn added, “I can’t promise that our next lesson will be our last but you’re right, it’s long past time I called in some help on this.” With that Twilight Sparkle turned around and began heading home. “Were are you going?” Konton asked, confused. “I’m not going to rob you of any more of your time, not until I have the help I need to hopefully make it work this time. Today’s lesson is canceled.” “Really?” Konton asked in disbelief. “Really” Twilight confirmed. The young unicorn was so happily surprised by this outcome that he almost forgot to thank this magic teacher before bolting off to town. He had a party to attend.