//------------------------------// // Magic Carpet Ride // Story: Through Martyr's Eyes // by ShouldNotExist //------------------------------// -Magic Carpet Ride- “Oo~oh are ya feelin’ satisfied,” Marty’s voice quietly carried over the muted strumming of the guitar in his hooves. Smoothly crafted notes quietly played over the silence that the library would have otherwise held, adding a bit of welcome atmosphere to the tree-house. Twilight found herself humming along with his music whenever he stayed on one song long enough, even as her mind whirled with thoughts and tangents. Again and again she found herself not unwillingly drawn back to Marty. It was not uncommon for Twilight to multitask in this fashion, books unshelving themselves and reshelving in the cloud of her magic. She could still hear Spike organizing the supplies downstairs, which she was thankful for since she’d been considering doing it herself for awhile now but had never put the time aside. Equations, matrices, and Thaumaturgical values flitted through Twilight’s mind. But no matter what equation, law, theory or process that she tried she could not find a properly feasible way for Marty to have created the constructs that he had so easily. While individually they had not appeared very complex, it was the fact that he had had so many moving independently at the same time. It left her frustrated. And she continued an inner debate of whether or not to ask him right out. But she was still afraid that Marty might be unwilling to talk about it. After all, it seemed that he didn’t seem very confident in the method himself. For all she knew it could simply be an intuitive thing, something done instinctually rather than something he’d worked out from the beginning. “So what are you doing, Twilight?” Marty asked suddenly, startling Twilight enough to make her fumble a set of books she’d been holding in her magic. “Huh- W-what?” she stammered. A rather uncoordinated bout of magic kept the books from all falling to the ground. “Oh! Well, it’s Reshelving Day … so I’m reshelving,” Twilight said quickly, hoping to draw attention away from her momentary lapse of concentration. Even if Marty had no way to actually have seen it. “Reshelving? Do ponies put your books back in the wrong spots or something?” he asked, leaning back into the cushion he’d taken residence in since they’d returned to the library. He’d made a point of familiarizing himself with his new guitar, stating rather bluntly that he felt his hoof positioning had been off. “Well, yes and no,” Twilight said, rather surprised at the question. Nopony had ever truly asked before, and it seemed most ponies were unconcerned in the why. “Sometimes it’s that, other times I get new books that need to be shelved properly. And there’s the books that ponies borrow and when they return them I have to put them back,” she explained. Several books organised themselves in front of her and slipped into the shelf between another set. “I usually just pick a day of the week, or the month depending on how many books pile up that need reshelving.” “That makes more sense. I guess you wouldn’t need to reorganize the entire library under different systems every time, that would be a little … chaotic,” Marty said off hoof, returning to his strings. “Heh, yeah …” she said, electing not to mention the many times she’d reshelved the library for that exact purpose when she’d been settling in. Needless to say there were many confused ponies trying to check out books during that time. But this was her chance, if she was going to ask him about his magic it should be now while they had a conversation started. “Marty, I’ve been wondering about that song you played for us for a little while now …” she started. Her books took a pause as she turned to him. “Yeah?” he said, stopping himself from getting caught back up in the intricacies of his instrument. “What about it? The lyrics? The tempo? I’m always surprised when ponies ask where I come up with them, because if they did a little looking I bet that most-” Marty started, a conspiratorial grin growing on his face. But Twilight cut him off, unwilling to let another tangent overtake the topic she really wanted to address. “I wanted to ask you about how you did it,” she said bluntly, stopping him in his metaphorical tracks. “I keep going over it in my head, but no matter what I do I only come to two conclusions: either you’re hiding some sort of super powerful artifact, or you’ve somehow broken the laws of magical energy conservation,” she said, watching him tilt his ears as he gave her comment thought. “Oh, that,” Marty said, lifting a hoof to scratch at his forelock. “Well, it’s not actually this simple, but essentially I’ve mastered a school of magic that doesn’t exactly follow the normal rules of magic,” he said carefully, rolling his hoof in the air as he searched for the proper words to use. “A different school of magic?” Twilight pondered, rolling through the list of different schools authorized by the Ministry of Magic. She’d read it seventeen times. She knew of schools for combat, defense, illusion, thaumaturgy, summoning, various elemental magics, and alchemy procedures. But none came to mind that didn’t follow a similar base of rules that took foundation in - admittedly warped and somewhat unrefined - physics, and she knew all of those rules nearly by heart. “Well- Yes and no,” Marty said, motioning with his hooves as he tried to explain. “It’s not exactly easy to comprehend or explain, and I’m not really the most talented at giving lectures. But that’s about the closest thing I can think of that it compares to,” Marty started, nodding to Twilight. “Essentially instead of relying on the magic from inside you, it relies on gathering magic from the air and ground around you. Which, on occasion, bends the rules. I don’t know or care to find out nearly enough about it to truly tell you where and when the normal magic rules do and don’t apply, so don’t ask me that,” he said with a nervous grin, offering a shrug. “That shouldn’t be possible though …” Twilight mumbled, already spinning off on several tangents. Her previous task forgotten, her magic unlocked the cabinet specifically held for the more advanced textbooks on magic that the library owned. She didn’t keep them in there so much because of their value - she wasn’t truly afraid of book thieves in this town - but because some of the contents could be potentially dangerous to an inexperienced unicorn. There were far too many sections that referred to defending against the darker arts that could lead to some ponies accidentally hurting themselves or others without the proper precautions. She quickly flipped to a list of aspects that normally defined a spell that would require such precautions; an abbreviated list of typical signs that a spell was being supercharged through unsavoury and immoral means was included near the back of one of the larger books. Black magic was not something very easily defined, summoning magic and most healing magics often rode the border of that definition and took the rules with a good pinch of salt. So often she found herself carefully going over the list whenever she wanted to try an obscure spell she’d found or even ones she’d attempted to infer herself. It was just to be sure that she herself didn’t accidentally fall into that dangerous ditch. Just as she thought, one of the most common signs of a spell that relied on those means dubbed ‘FORBIDDEN’ by the Ministry was when a spell or set of spells did not follow the rules of base magics. “Marty,” Twilight began carefully, not wanting to alarm him with an accusation that may very well just be her being overly cautious … again, “are you absolutely certain that this ‘school’ of magic doesn’t fall into the list of Royally Decreed Forbidden Arts?” she asked, watching him carefully for his answer. There were ways to tell when a pony had been brainwashed by the darker aspects of magic, it could very well be that Marty had no idea of the danger his magic put on himself. “Completely certain!” Marty answered quickly, putting his hooves up in the air as if he’d just been put at spearpoint. “I’ve read the compiled list- like- a hundred times, or something, now. Harmony magic doesn’t fall into any of the magics on the list!” he rattled off, suddenly very nervous. “Okay, okay,” Twilight said calmly. She gently lowered his hooves in a placating manner to try and further convey that she believed him. “Alright, I was just making sure. It’s just that it’s a part of my responsibilities as a student of the Princess to be able to spot signs of dark magic and stop it before it can get out of hand. But you seem fairly sure that your ‘Harmony magic’ doesn’t, and since you didn’t lash out you probably aren’t enthralled. It’s alright,” she said, watching him immediately collapse back into the cushion. “Sorry, sorry,” Marty said, taking a breath to calm himself. He had gotten a little too panicky, but there were still no signs of enthrallment. At least not in any magical sense. “It’s just that- I really don’t think this is gonna do me any favours with staying on your good side, but- I’ve already been tried once for that,” he said somberly, rubbing a hoof at the back of his head. “And found innocent of all charges!” he added quickly. “Okay, okay!” Twilight said again, once more placing a placating hoof on his to convey her sincerity. “I understand, and I’m not going to get you in trouble. I was just a little worried was all. Maybe a little bit paranoid, but I can’t really help that,” she said, giving a shrug as she tried to lighten his mood a little bit. “Can you tell me a little about it? I’ve never heard of Harmony magic before, other than the Elements of Harmony,” she said, hoping that she might calm him by getting him talking again. And to sate her own curiosity, but she couldn’t really blame herself for that either. “Uh … Sure?” Marty said, catching his breath and laying a hoof over the neck of his guitar. “As far as I know it has nothing to do with the Elements, but I had never heard of them before you came around,” he admitted, a small smile on his face. “Actually ‘Harmony’ magic is just the name I made for it, I don’t think it really has an official name. Ponies just end up calling it whatever their teacher called it, and I wasn’t much of a fan of what mine called it. I call it that because, like I said, it pulls magic out of everything around you.” Twilight quickly scooped up a parchment and quill, simultaneously returning and locking away her textbooks. She decided that, while she had a chance, she might as well take some notes. Perhaps Celestia would have an idea of what Marty meant and could put Twilights paranoia to a true rest. Plus, magic notes! she thought to herself with a giggle. It wasn’t often she got to discuss different schools of magic with other ponies, so she would try to enjoy it while she could. “What do you mean by that?” Twilight asked, taking a seat. “Do you mean that you’re transferring energy from things like plants?” she asked. She could remember a certain lesson in Elemental magic that had involved giving magic to plants to help them grow, it might make sense if somepony had figured out how to take it back. “Well, again, yes and no,” Marty said, a rather comical grimace coming to his face as he tried to organize his thoughts. “It’s more like- It’s something innate in everything, not specific to anything and at the same time rarely excluded from anything. It’s really hard to explain. But from what I learned, this is basically just taking something that’s used subconsciously and working yourself into using it consciously,” he tried, returning to scratching at his forelock. “A subconscious form of magic use? Like how pegasi fly and earth ponies grow plants?” Twilight asked, making sure to note down what he said. And she couldn’t help but notice Marty’s little tick of scratching at his forelock when he was thinking. “Sort of. It’s a bit more involved than that,” he started, taking a deep breath. “Harmony magic is sort of like … like a big spider web that connects everypony and everything. I don’t know how better I could describe it. I guess it’s easier to understand when you’ve actually done it,” he offered. “Alright, can you teach me then?” she asked. “Me?” was Marty’s immediate response, startling Twilight with how quickly he’d jumped to attention at the question. “Well, yes,” Twilight said happily, a smile growing at the idea. It would be a perfect opportunity for the two of them to grow closer as friends, and they could even conduct lessons between Ponyville and Manehattan through letters and scrying. But she didn’t want to impose. “Unless you know someone else I could go to to-” “Don’t do that!” Marty cut her off, waving his hooves in the air before him as if he were afraid she was attempting to leave to find one now. “What? Why?!” Twilight jumped, Marty’s sudden alertness enough to put her on edge. “Just- Trust me when I say that’s a really bad idea,” Marty stuttered, making a visible effort to calm himself again. Twilight was beginning to get the idea that this subject was one Marty was uncomfortable with. “Please don’t go looking for anypony else who knows this magic, you could get hurt,” he finished in a weak voice. “Hurt? Why would anypony try to hurt me over something like that?” she asked, shocked that Marty was so concerned over this. “It’s not so much that they would attack you, but every master I’ve met of the art is old and cruel. You’d absolutely hate it,” he said, his voice betraying the how well he knew that fact. “Their methods break your belief in magic, and then they fill your head up with what they want you to think. It took me years to get back to using traditional magic because of it, its so bad that it manifests more like lightning than magic,” he admitted, demonstrating with a crackle of grey that arced up his horn. For a moment Twilight was shocked. What Marty was describing was almost as horrifying as suggesting that his teacher had tried to break his horn off. Taking away any pony’s magic, unicorn or otherwise, was like taking away a fundamental part of their soul. She found herself with her hooves over her muzzle to hide the sickly grimace that had formed on her face. For a long moment she was silent, and could tell that her continued silence was making Marty uneasy again. “You wouldn’t do that, would you?” she asked soberly, able to very clearly tell that Marty stopped breathing when she did. “Of course not, I could never do that to another pony,” he said breathlessly, the idea clearly horrified him as much as it did her. “Ever,” he muttered to punctuate his statement. “Then why don’t you teach me?” she asked gently, carefully hoping she could make a point to him. “You don’t have to do that stuff, to anypony. There are other ways you can teach ponies,” she said encouragingly. “There’s tried and true methods to teaching of even the more abstract magic, we could try making a lesson plan based around them.” “I don’t think I would make a good magic teacher,” Marty said slowly, very still all the while. “I don’t even know where to start,” he muttered. Twilight shuffled forward from her seat eagerly. “That’s why we make a lesson plan. I can help you make it, and we can set up a schedule, and break it down into different subjects, and you can give me tests and I can write reports. With a little bit of creative planning we could even do it through the mail if you wanted to keep teaching me from Manehattan,” she said with glee, clapping her hooves together. She was extremely happy to see that Marty had also started to grin, her cheer must have been more contagious than she realized. “How would you start teaching somepony an unfamiliar magic school?” he asked her quietly, though some confidence had returned to his voice. At this Twilight paused, taking a moment to consider it. “What about a demonstration of something from that magic school? For a unicorn, that would be a very good starting point of what to expect for a student,” she offered, seeing Marty nod to that. “I … could do that,” he muttered, once more bringing his hoof up to his forelock but he did not scratch. “What’s a good example? …” He paused for a long moment, and Twilight waited patiently for him to sort through his own mumblings. “I think I know something that can both demonstrate the strength and varied applications, as well as its ... potential …” he said carefully, a frown overtaking his smile he’d worn before. “But I’ll need a test subject - not a pony or somepony’s pet, and something that’s animated and large enough to notice the effects of the spell.” Twilight immediately knew something that might help. “What about a Pakkun Flower?” she asked, continuing at the confused look Marty donned. “Zecora is a friend of mine who lives outside of town, in the Everfree forest. Recently she found a plant growing inside a rotting pipe within some ruins of an ancient bath house she found in the forest. She described it to me as an extremely animated muscipula- a plant that eats bugs. She says that their vines wave around in the air and that their mouths open and close to try and bite her whenever she waters them.” Marty shrugged. “I’m no botanist, but if they wave around enough it’ll work,” he assented, nodding. “When do you want to do this?” he asked, shrugging the strap of the guitar off from around his neck. “Well, I’ll have to actually convince Zecora to let me uproot and borrow one of them,” she muttered, tapping her chin. “I could make a run out there to talk to her, a few short teleports and a walk and I could be there and back in less than half an hour,” she offered, “And while I’m doing that, Spike can help you make a lesson plan for us,” she said, smiling at the idea. Marty simply shrugged with a tight lipped smile, he didn’t really have an opinion. --- Octavia restlessly paced the floor of the music shop, muttering to herself as she pounded a rut into Vinyl’s carpet. Vinyl sat by and let her pace, eventually even Octavia’s earth pony stamina would be exhausted and she would stop long enough for Vinyl’s words to have an effect. Her hooves tapped onto the large amplifier she’d made her perch. The door was locked, the blackout curtains drawn against the afternoon light and only a single candle lit the space they took. This was how they met to talk about these things, not because they were afraid of being caught but because their Mistress demanded that the shadows be present. “How long has it been? Five years? More?” Octavia mumbled to herself, a frown etched onto her face. “Five years since they lost him, seven since he went AWOL,” Vinyl recited, remembering the tales that she’d heard when she was still in training. “Seven years he’s been fighting Her. Mistress will be extremely happy to have him back,” she said, finally starting to calm down. “And if we help her catch him again?” she asked, finally turning overtly to Vinyl. The DJ smirked at the spark playing in her partner’s mulberry eyes. “She looked happy to hear about it, maybe she’ll give us our Marks for it,” she offered, winking down at the grey cellist. “She said we’d be met soon, maybe she’s sending somepony to make sure it goes along smoothly.” “Who is she sending?” Octavia asked hauntingly, turning a frightened look to Vinyl. Vinyl understood her apprehension, new bloods like them were looked down on amongst the older members. It wasn’t anything malicious, everypony was new blood at some point. More like being treated as a first year student than actual scapegoats, it had been worse for Octavia than it had been for Vinyl. “I don’t know, the Mistress didn’t give me any hints. My guess is somepony who knew Marty, they’ll have the best idea of how to contain him and get him back on our side,” Vinyl said with a shrug. “Should we get started without them? We could make friends, then it’d be easier to-” “Bad idea, if we screw it up we could lose him again for another five years. We don’t want to scare him off because we screw something up,” Vinyl said, a shiver running up her spine. She’d heard enough rumours of what the Mistress did to punish ponies who fell short or compromised some plan of hers, not to mention what supposedly happened to the ponies that had first gone after Marty. There were rumours abound surrounding Marty and his rapid rebellion against the Mistress. He was both famous and infamous. When he’d been with them, he’d been a defining aspect of every party and escapade : when he was around it was guaranteed that the event would be exponentially intense and energetic. He’d been the most loyal and most effective of any other caster among them. That is, until he left. Octavia expressed a similar feeling of trepidation at the idea of disappointing the Mistress, or even attempting a confrontation with Marty. “You’re right, we should just help the others with what we can when they show up, even if it’s just being their go-fers. Maybe we’ll finally have earned our marks and get to ride on the boat again,” she mused, seeing Vinyl perk up at that. “That sounds like a plan,” Vinyl said, hopping down from her amplifier. “So how should we pass the time?” she purred, sauntering toward the candle in the center of the room. She lifted the candle up in a pale glow as Octavia turned to her with a deadpanned expression. “You’re insatiable, Vinyl,” she said, ending with a smirk. She blew out the candle and dropped the room into darkness. --- Spike was lying on the floor carefully adding swirling calligraphy to a meter-wide chalk circle on the floor when Twilight came back. Five unlit candles surrounded the circle, placed over the points where the inscribed pentragram met the circle. A thin layer of salt had been spread carefully within the borders of the pentagon. Marty had abandoned his guitar in exchange of a cup of tea and a seat at the center table of the library, several rolled up pieces of parchment were neatly stacked next to him. “Hey, Twilight,” Spike greeted from the floor. “How was the walk?” he asked, finishing off one of the runes. “It was just a trip to Zecora’s,” Twilight said, continuing through the door. A covered cage followed her in, small squeaks and rustling sounds were only just muffled by the tarp. “What’s going on?” “Well, after I got done with the basement, I helped Marty with the lesson plan like you asked me to,” Spike said, though his tone betrayed frustration at his task. “He wrote everything in riddles, I don’t even understand half of the lesson plan I wrote for him,” he mumbled to her, causing a smile to grow on Marty’s face. “Riddles?” Twilight said in confusion. Marty shook his head. “If I let Spike know what was going to happen, he’d tell you about it, and then the lessons wouldn’t stick as well,” he said, taking a sip from his cooling tea. “Spike got to talking, and I think you need to learn a few things before you really decide to follow through with this,” Marty explained. “What sort of things?” Twilight asked, bringing the scroll to herself. “We could start with ‘not panicking’,” Marty said smugly. “Seems that’ll be the biggest one if what Spike’s told me about the doll and the time you snuck into the Canterlot Library,” he explained. His horn crackled and the scroll was snatched out of Twilight’s magic before she could open it. “He-heh,” Twilight laughed nervously. “He told you about that?” she asked sheepishly, aiming a smoldering glare at the prone reptile. Spike offered a nervous shrug as his only defense. “Yeah, but that can wait,” Marty said quickly, hopping up from his seat. “How’s the circle coming, Spike?” he asked. I followed all your directions, and I’ve triple checked all the angles three times … and now the runes are done,” Spike replied, standing up and closing a copy of 101 Roamanic Runes and walking over to replace it on its proper shelf. He paused as he passed the covered cage however, his curiosity suddenly overwhelming. “What is that?” “It’s a Pakkun Flower! Zecora let me have one of the plants she found in the Everfree, it seems mostly harmless,” Twilight explained, lifting the tarp off the cage to reveal its occupant. Sitting in a polished green pot was the plant. The single most noticeable feature of the plant was its white speckled red bulb that waved in the air atop a long leafy stem that was thicker around at the bottom than at the top. The bulb split in the middle, revealing two rows of white tooth-like protrusions and a flat pink leaf tongue. A bush of vines around its base held its bright green pot lovingly, a few other vines explored the limits of its cage. Spike stuck out his tongue in a mixture of intrigue and mild disgust as he watched the plant squirm. “Right, and why did you want this?” he asked Marty, slowly resuming his trip to the shelves. “A lot of the magic that this works with involves living things, but I don’t like to use it on ponies,” Marty explained. “This works out alright, the plant’ll probably barely even notice what’s going on and’ll be able to snap right back after the demonstrations.” Marty stood from his seat, walking carefully and following the sounds the plant was making. His hoof met the cage and was instantly wrapped around by one of the vines. The plant squeaked excitedly, tugging on his hoof and making Marty laugh. He leaned in and quietly whispered something to the plant, strangely making it freeze in place. The plant gave a shudder and retracted its vines protectively over its pot. “Awesome, let’s get started. Twilight, could you please place the plant on top of the salt, just in the center of the circle,” Marty said, turning to Twilight with a smile. “When it’s inside the circle it’ll start moving again,” he said, ears perking up as Twilight opened the cage. The plant gently hovered out from the cage and swiftly moved into the circle, the second Twilight’s magic let go of it the plant shuddered back into movement. With a squeak of intrigue the plant’s vines began tracing patterns through the salt, attempting to find more soil to spread into. “Alright, close the blinds and step back,” Marty said, stepping up to the circle. His hooves edged up to the chalk line, never crossing over it with more than his head. Twilight did as he asked, using her magic to shut all the curtains and dimming the light in the room. Spike took cover on the opposite side of the center table, he’d had enough experiences with supposedly harmless magic tricks that had left a few of his scales dislodged before. Marty’s horn crackled with magic, arcing across the circle and igniting all five of the candles. The glow in Marty’s horn died away and he squared his stance outside the circle. The plant turned itself to face Marty, its large red bulb waving hypnotically in the air. He leaned his head into the circle, just outside the reach of the plant’s snapping mouth. The room grew extremely quiet, even the plant seemed reluctant to break the silence. Twilight looked on in wonder, she could feel the magic in the circle growing through her horn. Marty was locked in an expression of both intense calm and concentration, and something stirred in the air. Stray magic crackled along Marty’s horn, but the room only seemed to grow darker as the magic grew stronger. The shadows shifted, the light of the candles became sharp and darker orange. Twilight craned her neck to watch as the ceiling seemed to lift away into deeper shadows, even the walls around them seemed to warp with the sudden lighting change. And then Marty whispered, reciting the words comfortingly to the plant. “Kneel in silence, alone. My spirit bares me. Pray  for guidance  towards home. In darkest hours.” His words echoed around the room, and once again the plant shivered to a halt in its movements. This time, the plant was simply frozen, unable to move. It seemed to be staring intently at Marty. Twilight leaned forward, willing herself to see the magic that Marty was using. But nothing seemed to have changed, the magic simply kept building within the circle. To the unicorn’s eyes, the magic swirled in a whirlwind as it fought to escape the circle and its inscribed shapes. “Kneel,” Marty said softly to the plant. The room echoed with his voice, but the words took their own shape. “Dream within dream we travel,” the echo sang. “In silence,” Marty hummed. Whether he was ignoring or not hearing the echoes around the room, Twilight couldn’t be sure. But it was an enrapturing display, and she watched intently. “Empires of faith unravel,” the echo cooed. “Alone.” This time the words came from all around, and it was Marty who answered. “Sealed with our virtues treasure,” he recited lovingly to the plant, his voice rising back to a normal volume. He pulled his head back quickly, flinching as if he’d been struck. A line of magic arced across the space, sounding much like an electric guitar chord as it struck. With a rush of air, the magic in the circle suddenly fled. The air tried to drag at the salt, creating tiny dunes within the pentagon. But it could not leave the chalk borders, it simply piled along the line as it fled where the plant shivered in the center. It started slowly at first, but quickly the spell took the plant. Grey color slowly spread across the green vines, the brightly colored pot left ignored. The grey quickly revealed stone beneath, and like a mold spreading, it overtook the entirety of the plant. Within moments the plant was completely turned to stone, frozen in a pseudo cower with its mouth held up in the air as if it were screaming. The candles petered out around the circle, their lines of smoke swirling around the center when the air moved back into the circle. The shadows shrunk back into their proper places, only what light came through the blinds lit the room. Marty laid his ears flat against his head and shook loose a cloud of stone dust from his mane. “Did it-” he coughed suddenly, thumping on his chest with a hoof, “- Did it work?” he asked, shrinking away from the circle. “It did!” Twilight said, an excited smile springing to her face with a speed that could have challenged Pinkie’s. She summoned a quill and parchment as quickly as she could, jotting down everything she’d seen in jittering script. “But what did you do? Is it some sort of Transmogrification? An abstract Alchemy transmutation? Or is it Thaumaturgy, I’ve seen some incredible things done with simple magic amplification matrices not unlike this,” she cited off, scribbling hastily as she danced around the circle. “Uh …” Marty scratched at his forelock in confusion for a moment as he tried to sort through Twilight’s rambling. “Actually, I’m not sure why it works exactly. I could tell you that some part of it has to do with the sudden lack of magic and at the same time convincing - in this case the plant - that it’s actually made of rock,” Marty stuttered, stumbling over his words in a vague attempt at sounding intelligent. “How did you ever come up with this? It must have taken years of experimenting, and calculating!” Twilight smiled, creating a copy of the magic circle in her notes as well as quickly sketching a picture of the petrified Pakkun Flower. “Actually it took about an hour for me to figure out what it would do, a half a day to really apply it,” Marty admitted, sitting down and pressing his ears harder against his head. “It’s still not perfect, but it was enough.” “You figured out how to do that in an hour?!” Twilight asked, nearly dropping her half page of notes. “How? And … What was it enough for? Why look into a spell like this?” she continued. Twilight could only think of very few applications for it that would not be unsavoury, its potential for exploitation was immense. “Several years ago, when I was first learning how to use this magic, I ran into a cockatrice,” Marty said. Twilight froze, startled. “You’ve been attacked by a cockatrice? Were you hurt?” “Not really, I survived because it couldn’t get into my eyes to cast its spell,” Marty explained. He pointed at his eyes with a hoof. “But I could make out the patterns behind the spell, very suddenly and clearly. It was the strangest thing to me, most of the time magic usually is just a weird shift in the dark, rarely colors,” Marty explained, his thoughts growing distant as he remembered that life changing moment. “To even start to truly understand this magic, you have to perform a magic never before done by pony-kind,” Marty said, suddenly very grim. “In my case, I recreated a type of magic that only a cockatrice was ever able to perform. I’ll tell you about what it was like sometime,” he promised, though his words still had a haunted quality just under the surface. “A new kind of magic,” Twilight whispered to herself, forgetting completely about her notes. She wondered at the weight of the task she’d been presented with, and the longer she thought on it the more titanic it appeared. “So,” Spike said, walking around from his makeshift shelter to approach the stone plant, “does that mean its dead?” he asked, looking with a guilty grimace at the circle. “Nah, it’s fine,” Marty stuttered, sliding his hoof across the floor until he smeared away a small part of the circle. The statue instantly burst apart, small rocks spraying out in an explosion. Dust and rock sprayed across the floor and the salt was released from its invisible container in a cascade across the broken circle. The plant gave a victorious screech, twisting and writhing as it broke free from the stone. “Now, you see, this is where my spell differs from the kind a cockatrice casts with its gaze,” Marty said, pointing in the direction of the circle. “I can never figure out how its supposed to perpetuate the way it gets it to on its prey - But, Twilight, this is your first warning,” Marty said, taking a reluctant sigh. “Warning?” Twilight mumbled to herself, surprised at the tone he’d taken. “Yes, one of two.” Marty’s shoulders fell, as if a large weight had settled over him. “If you haven’t already figured it out, this magic is not something you can take lightly. There will be no turning back once you’ve seen the things I’ve seen,” he said, and for a moment it seemed that the white swirls clouding his eyes shifted. “What do you mean by that?” Twilight asked, finding herself fearing the answer. “Think about it this way: If you went your whole life believing that your entire world consisted only of a single room, and somepony showed you the world that was waiting outside: How could you go back?” --- “Of course Cherry can come to your sleepover, Sweetie Belle,” Rarity said sweetly, smiling pleasantly at the four ecstatic fillies gazing up pleadingly to her. They answered her with an earsplitting squeal of glee. “Just make sure that Marty agrees!” she shouted over them. “And bring him back with you, I have a few things I want to talk about with him,” she told Cherry, smiling as they ran off to get all the fillies’ things for their party that night. Rarity smiled to herself at her punctuality, she’d have those two nervous mages falling over one another in no time at all. concerned about making Marty sound too reluctant to teach her