//------------------------------// // Magic [v.t] // Story: Applejack: Stare Master Extraordinaire // by Indeliblink //------------------------------// Twilight Sparkle was having an infuriatingly ordinary day. This was the first time she could remember being bored out of her mind in... well, ever. Even studying had lost its appeal in the sudden bout of depression, or whatever this funk could be called. She attempted to kill some time by reading a good work of fiction, but she ended up skimming the pages without taking in any of the story. Sighing, she slammed the book shut, closely followed by her head connecting with said book's cover. "Why am I so bored?!" She had reorganized the entire library--twice--yet she still couldn't locate anything that captured her attention for more than a few measly minutes. Where was the variety, the deviation from blandness and discovery of the new? Sometimes, thought Twilight Sparkle, being the most intelligent and well-read pony in the area really sucked. An urgent knocking on the front door snapped her out of her daze, her weary curiosity piqued. "Please," she mumbled, plodding downstairs to greet this visitor, "give me something to do. Anything." She swung the door open to reveal two of her best friends: Applejack appeared somewhat anxious, whereas Rainbow Dash was unusually pale and disconcerted as she pushed past the librarian and sat silently on the floor. "Um, hey girls, what's up?" Applejack threw an exhausted glance at the blue pegasus before answering simply, "Rainbow swallowed one of Fluttershy's birds, an' we need ya to get it out." Okay, perhaps not anything... "Well?" Twilight shook her head, taking in the farmpony's expectant demeanor. "Uh... run that by me again?" Twilight requested, flicking her ears, and Applejack sighed impatiently. "Bird in tummy." She pointed to Rainbow, who cringed and held a hoof to her queasy stomach. "Please magic it out." "'Magic' is not a verb," Twilight retorted. When she received nothing more than an uncaring glare, she rolled her eyes. "Okay, okay..." She reached her magical influence towards the shivering blue pony next to her, surrounding her belly with a pale lavender glow. "H-hehe, that t-tickles-s!" Rainbow bit her lip, barely holding out against the sensation until the glow finally disappeared; with a short flash of light, Chewy's sopping wet body appeared on the floor in front of her, and she yelped in surprise, scrambling backwards to rest against a bookcase. "Eeewww," she whined, sticking her tongue out. "You think you have it bad?" Twilight groaned. "I'm the one who's going to have to clean up a bunch of drool and stomach acids from the floor." "Excuse me," Applejack chimed in sweetly, "y'all think we could get back to dealin' with the real problem?!" Twilight blinked, taking in the situation for the first time since the two had arrived. Her eyes settled on the unmoving bird a few feet away, and her breath caught in her throat as the implications of such a scene finally came to her. "Oh... oh no." Poor Fluttershy... "'Oh no' is right." Applejack nodded, her expression softening into one of hopelessness. "So, d'ya think ya might have a spell for... I dunno, bringin' this lil' fella back to life?" Her heart sank when the alicorn shook her head. "No, I'm sorry... That's well beyond the capabilities of any mage." "Please, Twi?" Applejack fixed her with a pleading expression, and she smiled inwardly as she saw her friend's resolution falter. "Can't ya at least... just try?" "I... w--I mean..." She sighed, waving a hoof in defeat. "Okay, but no promises." Her horn alight with a soft glow, she leaned down to the ground, paused a moment, and lightly tapped the old bird's beak with the tip of her horn. She straightened up, noticing with some disappointment that the poor pigeon hadn't yet moved as she anticipated. "Did... did it work?" "I'm not sure," she admitted. "Didn't seem to." Twilight carefully nudged Chewy in the side with no response. Shrugging, she gently lifted one of his limp wings and tugged upward, intending to hoist him into the air. Instead, to all three ponies' horror, the wing promptly tore off at the shoulder. Rainbow threw up immediately. Applejack let out an uncharacteristically girly screech and pointed a shaking hoof at the sight. "Th-t-the wing, i-i-it just, c-came off! Fix it, Twilight, fix it!" "I'm trying!" Twilight wailed, repeatedly pressing the wing back into place, only for it to fall right off and flutter uselessly to the ground. "Uh, ehh, erm, here!" She ran and snatched a small safety pin from the desk in the corner of the room. Soon the wing was pinned back onto its owner, oddly reminiscient of a badge of honor. "There!" She smiled, holding her work out for inspection. She met Applejack's blank stare and quickly found her own satisfaction waning. "L-lemme try again." Once again, the alicorn's horn lit in a soft glow, this time a darker shade of indigo. She touched the tip to Chewy's chest, then stood back at attention, awaiting some kind of response. After a tense silence, marred only by Rainbow's hacking cough in the background, Chewy's eyes fluttered open, and Applejack gasped in awe. Chewy was alive! Fluttershy wouldn't hate her, and she wasn't a murderer with cockatrice-like powers! "Twilight, you did it!" Applejack cried joyfully, hugging the purple pony tightly. "Oh, thank you, thank you, than--" HISSS! Applejack and Twilight froze in their embrace, peering at the newly-revived Chewy's interesting new set of fangs and forked tongue, which he flicked angrily at them. He opened his beak-jaw to emit another hiss but was cut off when-- "AAH!" Applejack lashed out with a hoof and stomped heavily on the mutant bird-snake... thing. Repeatedly. Eventually, Twilight stopped her by lightly gripping her hoof in a magic hold, tugging the quivering mare away from the flattened ball of feathers plastered to the floor. Rainbow, finally over her coughing fit, observed the no-longer-alive-again bird grimly. "Smooth," she muttered at last, sending Applejack an amused grin. "Shut up." "Oooo-kay, question time," Twilight chirped, pressing her forehooves together. "Let's get started, shall we? Question one: Why did Rainbow Dash eat a bird?" "Well, Miss Cowpony over here decided to force-feed me the evidence to hide the fact that she killed one of Fluttershy's little buddies." "Ah did not!" Applejack shrieked indignantly. "You weren't supposed to gulp it down like a timberwolf, clouds-for-brains!" "Question two!" Twilight cut off any further bickering with the sharp interjection. "Why did you kill one of Fluttershy's birds?! Are you mad?" Applejack gritted her teeth, glaring daggers at the equally-peeved pegasus across from her. "Gettin' there." "Applejack, please--" "Oh, it was an accident, fer Celestia's sake! Of course it was an accident, ya don't actually think I'd murder one o' those innocent animals, do ya?!" "Of course not--" "Well, that's that." Applejack shut her eyes and crossed her forelegs over her chest, nodding firmly. Twilight sighed. "Yes, that's all well and good. But how? How'd you manage to... do it?" The farmpony shrugged, gazing at the unruly mass of feathers on the floor. "Ah dunno... one minute we're just starin' at each other, an' I start feelin' kinda strange and dizzy and such... the next thing ah know, splat--he's layin' there on the ground, dead as a doornail." "Wait. 'Strange and dizzy'?" Twilight narrowed her eyes. "How so?" Applejack shrugged again. "He was just kinda... captivatin', I guess. Like I couldn't look away." When Twilight opened her mouth to question further, she held out a hoof to stop her. "It was nothin' really. Just kind of a starin' contest, ah suppose." "Stare..." Twilight repeated the word, her eyes widening. "Could... could one of Fluttershy's animals have picked up the Stare from her? Possibly learned how to use it?" "Or maybe Applejack is the one who has a new, but way cooler, deadlier version of the Stare! She's like... the Stare Master, Junior!" Rainbow rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "No, that doesn't sound right. The Stare Mare? No, rhyming names are too easy to make fun of..." After a moment of thought, she jabbed a hoof in the air, smiling widely. "The Stare Maestro! Yeah! Or would it be Maestress?" She looked at Twilight, raising an eyebrow. "Twilight, is it 'maestro' or 'mae--" Her voice died out when she noticed the disbelieving looks from her friends, and she blinked rapidly. "What?" Twilight shook her head in agitation. "But--but this doesn't make any sense! Why would one of Fluttershy's birds just...?" She trailed off, looking to Applejack with a pleading expression. "Ah've been askin' myself that question all mornin', Twi..." Applejack sighed. "Ah ain't got the faintest idea, either." A long silence stretched out among the three friends, and eventually Rainbow was the one to break it. "So... what now?" Twilight made eye contact with Applejack, searching her face for any inclination as to what she might do next. "I think you need to tell Fluttershy." Applejack's muscles seized up, and she sucked in a sharp breath. "No! Ah can't! No way, no how! I can't do that, not..." She lowered her voice to a whisper. "...not to Fluttershy!" "She needs to know, Applejack." Somewhere deep down, Applejack knew she was right. After all, Fluttershy wasn't stupid; eventually she'd come to the conclusion that Chewy was gone. That didn't mean she'd ever stop searching for him, though. Fluttershy wasn't the type to give up on her friends. She was no Rainbow Dash, of course, but there was no question that that mare's rescue mission could continue indefinitely, and her hopes could be crushed, little by little, into dust. She couldn't let that happen. Not to a friend. "I'll think about it," she answered truthfully. Twilight nodded, turning to walk to the kitchen. "Would you two like to stay for lunch?" "Sure, I'm starved," Rainbow moaned, clutching her growling belly with a grimace. Applejack chuckled as the pegasus joined her host at the table, and started scraping the squished form of Chewy the Were-Bird off the floor. "Nah, thanks for the offer, but ah've gotta get on with this whole Chewy issue." "Good luck," Twilight called. "I know you'll do the right thing, even if I don't even know what it is." "Thanks." Applejack tipped her hat to the two mares in sequence. "Twi, Dash." Rainbow waved her away with a hoof. "Later." The farmpony smirked and trotted out the door, closing it quietly behind her. "So, how'd it taste?" Twilight looked to Rainbow eagerly, her eyes sparkling with curiosity. "Huh?" "The bird, silly!" Twilight laughed, ignoring the shocked expression Rainbow wore. "I've always been interested in trying it, but it's such a controversial issue these days!" "T-T-Twilight, what're you talking about?!" Rainbow edged away from her in the chair, her mouth struggling to form words. "I--you..." "Kidding!"