Mare Magnet

by Revenant Wings


VIII - Final Hours

As Rumble walked up to the schoolhouse the next morning, he already knew something different was going on. Instead of hearing the bell at the top of the schoolhouse ringing and the fillies and colts of Ponyville running into the school house of fear of being late, the bell was silent and it seemed like all of the colts were playing around outside. A young stallion, caramel-colored with a brown mane and tail and sporting a red whistle around his neck, was standing around watching the fillies and colts.
Rumble found Archer, Pipsqueak, and Featherweight standing around under the oak tree where they usually had lunch. Featherweight was messing with his camera, but had an ear towards Archer and Pipsqueak, who seemed to be relatively heated. Rumble snuck up quietly, carefully stepping along the grass so that they couldn’t hear him, but they seemed to be too involved in their argument to care.
“…I don’t understand what’s gotten into you, Archer,” Pipsqueak was nearly shouting. “First you didn’t mind working with us four, and now you just want it to be you and Rumble on the project.”
“I don’t care if you get it or not!” Archer shouted, her normally blue cheeks a very bright pink. “I don’t see what the big deal is, though. Can’t we just work on the project with us two?”
“Look, you’re just rambling on, now. Besides, Cheerilee wanted at least groups of three for the science project.”
“Then I’ll invite Scootaloo. I’m sure she would be willing to take me up on that offer.”
“I thought your sister was going to be with Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom. They already put their group in to Cheerilee yesterday.”
“We can change things around, I’m sure. We can always talk with Miss Cheerilee and say Scootaloo just wants to change groups.”
“Are you out of your mind!?” Pipsqueak finally shouted, going red in the face and the eyes. “First of all, that group is locked in, which means it can’t be changed. Secondly, that would leave Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle with one less group member than the requirement.”
“So? You can go with them. And Featherweight can go with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon and everypony’s happy.”
Featherweight looked up from his camera. He glared and growled at Archer, who seemed to not pay attention.
“Archer, I swear, I’ve never seen you so insensitive before the events of this past week!”
“And now we’re back to square one,” Archer huffed. “You just don’t get it.”
“Don’t get what?”
Rumble could see the hairs on the back of Pipsqueak’s neck stand up, along with three sets of ears as he spoke. Featherweight waved to Rumble and Pipsqueak turned slowly around, his eyes as big as Archer’s.
“I’ll be right back,” Archer giggled nervously. “I… I need to see if Scootaloo has her math homework with her. Catch up with you later!” And she shot off in a blue streak.
“What’s gotten into Archer?” Rumble asked, watching as she ran across the schoolyard.
Featherweight made derpy eyes and cycled a hoof around his head.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Pipsqueak said. “Ever since we got here she’s been talking about rearranging the groups for the science project once Cheerilee got here.”
“Where is she now?”
“Talking with Filthy Rich about Diamond Tiara getting into a fight yesterday, I think,” Pipsqueak said. He turned to Featherweight, who nodded and pointed to the tan pony as Pipsqueak continued. “Anyway, Caramel’s our substitute again, but he’s just waiting until Cheerilee gets here. She’s supposed to be speaking with Archer’s parents, too, when school gets out.”
Rumble shrugged. “Any idea when she’s supposed to be here?”
“No,” Pipsqueak replied, “but Caramel said we need to have our groups ready to tell her by the time she gets here. Half of the class already has their groups set up, but there are still ten of us that need to get one together.”
“So that’s what Archer meant when she was talking about moving around the groups.”
“Yeah. She wanted to kick one of us over with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle and the other with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon just to be able to work with you alone.”
“But Cheerilee said they were supposed to be groups of three.”
“That’s what I don’t understand. She’s so insistent on it.”
Featherweight pointed to his chest, then acted like he was pulling something above his head.
“Seems like it,” Rumble said.
Pipsqueak looked over to Featherweight, who went back to fiddling with his camera like he did nothing, then looked over to Rumble. “What did he mean? That’s the only one I haven’t been able to decipher right now.”
How does Featherweight know anyway? “Uh… what he meant was Archer’s letting her fee—uh, intuition go before her rational thinking.”
“Okay. Anyways, should we still try and have Archer in our group?”
“Maybe it’s just a phase she’s going through,” Rumble said. “When we get together and do the project, I’m sure it’ll be fine.”
Featherweight put away his camera, pointed to himself and Rumble, then pointed to an empty spot of the field away from the tree.
“You… wanna speak with me alone?”
Featherweight nodded.
“Come on, Featherweight!” Pipsqueak said. “You can tell me, too.”
Featherweight shook his head.
“Aw, fine. Don’t take too long.”
Rumble followed Featherweight until they went to the empty area of the field, the nearest group was in the sandbox nearby and Caramel was talking with them after one got hit in the head, so they weren’t even paying attention to the two colts.
Rumble watched as Featherweight took a piece of paper from his camera bag and handed it to Rumble. It was of Rumble in the library with Twilight and Thunderlane.
“How did you know I was heading over to Twilight’s that day?”
Another picture, this time showing the front of the schoolhouse. Thunderlane was barely a small grey dot inside the schoolhouse as the other fillies and colts were dispersing. Rumble was another small mark, this time on the bench.
“I suppose that behavior is a little unusual for me and Thunderlane. But, how come you didn’t say anything?”
Featherweight pointed to Rumble and made a gesture like he was zipping his mouth shut, then pointed to himself and made the same gesture.
“That’s very considerate of you. But, what do you think? How come Archer’s acting so weird now when she wasn’t before?”
Featherweight shrugged.
“What do you think about Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon?”
“If it goes the way I think it will, by tomorrow, they won’t care.”
“How come you only spoke that one line?”
Featherweight shrugged and said nothing before walking back to where Pipsqueak was.

* * *

Miss Cheerilee didn’t come to the schoolhouse for half an hour. While the deep pink mare seemed to be in a happy mood, she was followed by a very angry and rather humiliated Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. Rumble wasn’t sure if he was happy to see them actually get in trouble for their actions or afraid of if something worse was about to come along.
Even so, he followed them into the schoolhouse and took his seat at his desk. Pipsqueak and Featherweight took their seats at the front of the class and Archer took her seat next to Rumble like usual, but instead of being talkative the blue filly acted like Rumble wasn’t even there. Rumble tried poking her on the shoulder as she reached into her bag to bring out some paper and a pencil, but she didn’t even respond.
Miss Cheerilee talked with Caramel for a little bit about the class behavior before he gave her the sign-in sheet and Caramel left. Cheerilee made a few more notes on the sheet before bringing out a ruler and tapping her desk a few times until the classroom quieted down. She was smiling brightly at the class as she spoke.
“Thank you all for behaving yourselves for Mister Caramel,” Cheerilee said cheerfully. “I had something planned for the science lecture today, but I suppose I’ll skip that for now and make sure you all have your groups for your projects. Now, I know some of you already have your groups together, so I just want to make sure. We’ll go down the remaining list alphabetically.”
Archer stood up beside her desk proudly. “Miss Cheerilee, I would like my group to co—”
Cheerilee’s expression turned from bright and smiling to glaring at the earth pony filly. “Archer,” Cheerilee said sternly, causing Archer to shut her mouth immediately. “I’m not giving you a choice. You have to work with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon.”
Even Featherweight gasped.
“B-But Miss Cheerilee!” Archer protested as she clambered back into her desk. “I wanted to work with Rumble!”
“You will have other chances to work with Rumble,” Cheerilee said, “but I can’t have my students getting into fights with one another. I’ve spoken with Filthy Rich about his daughter’s behavior and I want you three to work together. I’ll be checking in with both your families to make sure that you’ll be adhering to these rules.”
Archer went from whining to suddenly rather angry. “Why are you making me work with them? They’re the biggest bullies in the class! We’ll spend more time fighting than doing the project! Why don’t you put someone else with them instead?”
“Archer!” Cheerilee shouted. “I won’t have you shouting at me in my classroom! Neither Diamond Tiara nor Silver Spoon want this, but I will have order and I won’t tolerate you fighting. If you all want a good grade, you’ll have to work together on this project. That is my final decision.”
The entire class sat in horrified silence. None of them had seen Cheerilee go off like that before, and it was quite apparent from the look on their faces that they weren’t keen on seeing it again.
Cheerilee herself remained silent for a few minutes and took a few deep breaths. It was only when she had noticeably calmed herself down that she returned to the list of students. “Let’s see… next on the list is Featherweight. Featherweight, do you have a group ready?”
Featherweight nodded and pointed to Rumble and Pipsqueak.
“Alright. Featherweight, Rumble, and Pipsqueak are in the group. Anyone else?”
Archer raised a hoof.
“Anyone else?” Cheerilee repeated.
Archer put her hoof down and no one else said a word.
The last group was made of the remaining four ponies without incident. Afterwards, Cheerilee decided to give the class a few minutes to get into their groups and talk about what they could do for the science project as well as go over the rubric she was giving them. Rumble went to talk with Archer, but the little blue filly picked up her stuff and walked away before Rumble could even get a word out.
When the groups were together in various corners of the classroom, Rumble’s group was close to Diamond Tiara’s group. Archer avoided eye contact or even looking at Rumble, but Diamond Tiara ended up having something to say.
“I thought she was gonna put you with us because we tease you about being a blank flank. This’ll have to work since Archer has a cutie mark, but you just should have accepted the offer so that it didn’t come out to this big mess.”
“It was a mess to begin with,” Rumble said. “And, far as I know, a mess it’ll stay.”
“It could have been different,” Diamond Tiara said. Rumble noticed her usual traces of condescension weren’t present. “We… we could have actually been…”
“Who or what is to say we can’t be?” Rumble said, though he wondered if he would regret it later. “Cutie marks? That’s just what you’re good at. I don’t know what I’m good at yet, but I’m still young. I have time to figure it out. You might have figured out what you’re good at already, but do you know what you’re going to do with it?”
Diamond Tiara looked away from Rumble and didn’t say anything.
Rumble turned back around and started talking with Featherweight and Pipsqueak.
Neither Rumble nor Diamond Tiara said anything to the other for the rest of the day.

* * *

Once school was out, Rumble walked out with Featherweight and Pipsqueak.
“You wanna come over to Featherweight’s house and start thinking up some ideas for the project?” Pipsqueak asked as they stopped for a minute at the road.
“I can’t today,” Rumble said. “Thunderlane has me taking tutoring with Twilight Sparkle for my troubles in math. I’ll be over at the library for the next hour or so.”
“Too bad,” Pipsqueak said. “I hear his dad’s got a cool collection of nature photography from around Equestria. Maybe tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow will be better,” Rumble said. “I won’t have tutoring and Thunderlane may try and get extra hours so I’ll have a free day after school. See you tomorrow, then.”
“Got it! Later, Rumble!” Pipsqueak called.
Featherweight waved.
Rumble waved back before heading through town with his saddlebags towards the large tree in the center of Ponyville. Tutoring was part of the reason that he was going, but Rumble didn’t consider it the main reason. Today, Twilight should have received the spell-book from Princess Celestia, and soon the innate magic that plagued him the past few days was to be removed. Only then could he feel he could return to a life of normalcy.
As he approached the giant oak that held the library, he could hear the words of Thunderlane from that morning replaying themselves in his head. Now remember, Rumble. You might be going there for tutoring, but Twilight needs to perform that spell first. If she doesn’t have the spell-book, you are to leave immediately and tell her you are going to reschedule your tutoring session for another time. I don’t care if you have to give her an excuse of I had planned something for us later. If you have to leave the library, go to Sugarcube Corner. The Cakes and Miss Pinkie have been informed of the situation and will watch you there until I get off. But if she has the spell-book, don’t be afraid. Twilight knows what she’s doing more than anypony else, and you’re in good hooves with a magician of that caliber… so long as she does the spell first.
Rumble took a deep breath and knocked on the door of the library. There was the sound of steps coming from the far end of the library and soon the door opened to reveal the unicorn mare herself.
“You didn’t have to knock, you know,” Twilight said, opening the door so Rumble could come in. “The library’s open to the public for at least another hour or two.”
“I just figured I’d be polite,” Rumble said, not going into the library. “Did you get the spell-book for the spell to get rid of my innate magic?”
“Right here,” Twilight said, bringing out the leather-bound book and opening it to the exact page that noted the spell.
Rumble took a quick glance of the page, satisfied, and finally entered the library. Twilight closed the door behind him as he entered and went off through another door in the first floor as Rumble walked into the library. He followed Twilight to the door and found it was a small room furnished with a table, a few chairs, and a chalkboard. On the table stood a teapot, a small plate of cookies, and two cups, one specifically made to fit between a non-unicorn’s hooves.
“Right,” Twilight said, setting the book down on the table, “so which does Thunderlane want first: the spell or the tutoring?”
“He wanted the spell first,” Rumble said. “Nothing was to happen with the tutoring today unless you had that spell-book. Not that he blames you, but he just wanted to make sure nothing went… out of hoof.”
“Completely understandable,” Twilight said. “Now, come here, Rumble. I’m going to need you to stand perfectly still and pay attention to everything I say so that nothing goes wrong.”
Rumble came and stood in front of Twilight, the purple unicorn staring into his eyes. They stayed that way for a minute before Rumble noticed Twilight wasn’t blinking again.
“You’re staring again…” Rumble said, feeling his face get hot.”
“Oh, sorry. I just can’t help but think how pretty your eyes are.”
“Miss Twilight, are you going to get this spell over with or am I going to have to leave!?”
Twilight jumped as Rumble shouted at her and had to shake her head to clear her ears. Eventually, though, she gave him a sheepish grin. “I’m sorry. Better get this done so I don’t trail off again, huh?”
“The sooner, the better.”
“Right.”
Twilight’s cheeks went pink as she went and looked into Rumble’s eyes again, but this time Rumble could see Twilight’s horn start to glow with magical power. The magic soon started to travel up Rumble’s front hooves and soon his whole body was covered in a semi-translucent purple glow. Rumble felt himself lose control of his motor skills as he was gently lifted up into the air.
“Are you sure about this?” Twilight asked as Rumble floated into the air.
“Entirely!” Rumble shouted back. “Just do it before I change my mind and leave before tutoring!”
Twilight nodded and closed her eyes. A pink string of solid magic began to come out from her horn and wrap itself around Rumble. Rumble felt himself become tightened by the string beginning to wrap his hooves to his sides. Although he could breathe perfectly normally, he felt claustrophobic by the pink string gently wrapping itself around his body as it coiled around closer to his neck. It passed around his neck and covered his face and Rumble felt like he was floating amongst the pink magic. He felt like he couldn’t tell up from down and soon became sick as though from being spun around a long time.
A strand of purple came out from the pink and started pushing at Rumble’s chest. It pushed and pushed and soon felt like it broke through his coat and skin. Rumble could feel his insides moving around as it poked and prodded and more and more of the string went into his chest. Suddenly the purple string vanished entirely into his chest and he could feel things from his brain to his wings to his hooves get prodded by the magic inside him. He wanted to shout for Twilight to stop, but had the faintest idea the purple unicorn couldn’t hear him.
Almost when the feeling became unbearable to stand any longer, there came a pushing from the inside of his chest and the violet string started to pour back out from his chest. Rumble watched as the purple string floated out of his chest and soon vanished back into the pink void. As though the whole process was going in reverse, Rumble watched as the string soon vanished back into the pink magic cloud, which gently began to unravel from around him and back into Twilight’s horn until only the semi-translucent purple glow that held him in the air remained. Afterwards, Twilight set him gently down on the ground and Rumble finally felt the ability to control himself again.
Twilight looked at him expectantly. “Well? How do you feel?”
“A little sick,” Rumble said. The whole experience of floating in the magic field had made him a little nauseous.
Twilight poured a cup of brown liquid from the teapot into each cup before picking up the cup made for non-unicorn hooves and giving it to Rumble. “Drink this. It’s a mild sweet tea. It should help settle your stomach. Not many pegasi have to undergo invasive magic like that and the experience can be a harrowing one.”
Rumble sipped the tea. It tasted good, and after a few sips he started to feel better. “What exactly did that spell do?”
“Well, there’s no way to permanently remove innate magic,” Twilight said. “The most we can do is nullify it so that it doesn’t show up anymore. So I went and poked around in your magic aura and found the source of the magic and toned it down to the point it won’t appear. It still has a small effect, but since we can’t nullify it completely, I just made it where if it does appear, the level of magic is so small it would take decades of constant exposure to you to take effect.”
Rumble nodded. “Say I want it back…”
“Just come to me and I’ll dial it back up. We can make it where it appears enough for positive connotations but not enough to make every mare in the vicinity go haywire. Since the look on your face says you don’t understand, I’ll give you a practical example: fillies your age might find you attractive but you won’t garner enough attention to make Rainbow Dash interested in you again and you won’t have fillies fighting over you or fondling over you without your input after an hour or two of exposure.”
Rumble nodded.
“Did you bring your math book? I assume we have something of an hour until Thunderlane arrives. Oh, and feel free to eat the cookies. You’ll focus better with something in your stomach.”
“Miss Twilight? Before we begin, I have a question.”
“What is it?”
“What do you think of me?”
“You’re cute for a colt your age, in the sense you have more delicate features than most. Your grades say you’re intelligent though your last few assignments prove you do need the work on the math.”
“Any attachment…?”
“I want you to succeed and am happy to tutor you. But that’s as far as it goes, if that’s what you were aiming for.”
Rumble nodded.
“Very well, then. Now, let’s see where you started having trouble and we’ll work our way onwards from there…”