//------------------------------// // Reignition // Story: The Collapse of Stolen Magic // by Europa //------------------------------// Vinur Early-Bird Vinur was not a happy griffon. He had to wake up long before the sun rose, alone in his cold house, hungry and thirsty. To compound that, his thoughts buzzed with Cygnus X-1. The tepid-mannered delusional centaur who'd come into his life, who'd just casually used his kindness for her own ends, who'd... who'd... ! "Gah!" he shouted, tossing his pillow into the wall with a disappointingly soft sound. "Stupid, stupid, stupid!" He walked around his house early in the day, muttering to himself. "Can't believe her. What right do I have? I have every right. And she accuses me of that after all I've done for her! Take her in out of the goodness of my heart and all she does is..." He stalked out of his bedroom and into the kitchen. He fished around in his icebox and pulled out a few choice cuts, then stuck them into the microwave. Vinur glared at the box as its dial ticked down and finished with a ding, then pulled out his breakfast. After tossing it back and forth between his talons to cool it down, he began tearing it into strips with his beak and swallowing them whole. He was still pissed at Cygnus. The nerve of that centaur! He'd graciously led her into his own home, at great risk to himself, and his species, and the world, took care of her, fed her, sheltered her, and that was the repayment he got from her? Whining about how 'oh woe is me, I'm only going to live another hundred thousand years' and shouting at him that he had no 'right' to keep her abilities from her? He had every right not to want her to drain the flight from his bones! Or did little miss special think she was just so much more important than him?! After finishing off breakfast, Vinur walked out of his house and took to the air, grumbling to himself all the way through the dark and frigid sky. Work was going to be torture, he could tell already. His job was mind-numbingly boring, and the whole situation with Cygnus was going to make him molt, but he didn't have a choice; he had to go. At least his coworkers were bearable and the pay was alright. He flew away from Piercing Sky, heading towards the mountain overlooking it. At the very base of the mountain, right beneath the snow, were a series of wooden cottages. Vinur flew in behind the largest one and touched down, walking in through the back door. Inside were stacks of trail guides and warm gear for people - not just griffons - who wanted to climb the icy slopes. Personally, Vinur had seen it many times before when he was a cub and it had lost his appeal, but hey, whatever got him paid. Pushing into the backroom, which contained emergency equipment, a time table, and a map, Vinur found his sister in the middle of taking inventory. She saw him and put the pencil in between her feathers. "Hey bro. Any news with Cygnus? I hear that she was seen out in the open, what's that about?" Walking over to the sign-in sheet and signing his name with the pencil provided, Vinur looked over at Gria. "Yeah, the government messed up there and led her around in open daylight." She snerked. "Wow, great idea." "I know, right?" He opened a nearby closet and slipped on a blue vest. He adjusted it with a talon and then walked back into the room, where Gria was looking over some harnesses. "Anyway, I'm gonna go hold the counter. You good back there?" "Yeah, don't worry about it bro. I'll be out in a bit, you just hold down the fort." He nodded and went through another door to the front of the building. It was here that visitors bought tickets to the top of the mountain - named Piercing Heavens - and maps to guide them along the paths, as well as distress beacons in case something terrible happened. A few posters showing the view from the top of Piercing Heavens were hung here and there. There was also a window that showed the slopes of the mountain, revealing how the greenery down below slowly dwindled with height until there was but stone and moss at Vinur's current height. More griffons trickled in, going around to other counters for when customers trickled in. Vinur greeted Grizelda, Terol, and Kaliv as they took their places, ready for the people who came to marvel at the mountain's enormous heights, or to come and conquer the slopes. Before long, the sun came up, and business was open. The sun's rays streamed through the windows and lit up the inside of the building with the orange of morning. For the first hour nothing happened; nobird in their right mind would come to climb a mountain in the early morning. That left nothing for everybird to do but stand around, making idle conversation about how-was-your-day and how-are-the-kids or, in Vinur's case, to mope around and play with the cash register's buttons. It wasn't the most busy season, but eventually some people began to trickle in. First was a small pegasus family, speaking with each other in Equestrian and colored in various shades of blue: sky blue, dark blue, glacier blue. All three of them carried saddlebags, no doubt filled to the brim with water, food, and maybe a camera. Vinur forced his emotions down and adopted a welcoming smile. The mare clip-clopped her way to Vinur, with a glum colt and her husband in her wake. The pony cleared her throat and began speaking in Avian, her accent making the sounds longer and smoother than they should have been. "Hello, we're here to go on the Arctic Trail, we'd like tickets for two adults and one minor." He wondered whether or not to respond in Equestrian, but decided it was not in his best interest to humiliate customers, and spoke in Avian. "Alright." He did a quick calculation in his head, and then a currency conversion. "That'll be eleven bits please," he replied, and sure enough the stallion reached into his saddlebags and pulled out a small bag, impossibly balanced upon his hoof. Vinur fought to keep himself from staring; adhesive magic was a pit of a thing. He gave him eleven bits, which Vinur took and put into the register. "Thank you," he said, reaching under the desk and pulling out three slips of paper, one of which was smaller than the other. "Here are your tickets, see that counter over there? She'll give you the flare equipment in case you need help, and he will give you a map. Enjoy your stay," The stallion nodded, taking the tickets in his hoof. "We will, thank you," he said, and then the family moved away to Terol's stand to look over the various trails they could take. Vinur was left to wait for the next customer. Slowly but surely, the number of people increased into a light trickle. Vinur let thoughts of Cygnus X-1 fall from his mind and devoted his thoughts to his work, smiling happily at the customers who came for a few hours on the mountain. He felt the tension in his limbs drain away as he did what he loved. He tried to imagine what each of the groups who came by were like. The group of young unicorn, earth pony and pegasus stallions were probably on break from their educations. The family of reindeer coming to see just how cold the Griffon Empire could get, and probably laugh about how 'little cold the griffons could stand'. The lone tiercel was from somewhere else in the Empire, and wanted to see the slopes. Vinur tried to put himself in their shoes, to imagine where they were from, what light they saw Piercing Heavens in, what they thought of his home, what they thought of him, what they thought he thought of them... Then his lunch break came, and his mind snapped back to reality. His replacement, a pretty hen who went by the name of Hevanna, took over the register and he took off to the nearest café. It was technically also a part of his workplace, but they had good coffee so he wasn't complaining. Before he went there he walked into the storage room to take off his vest — since he wasn't on the clock during his lunch break — before flying out the back, looping around to the front with a bag of crowns in his talons. The Hot Cup café was a warm, homey building where the smell of pastries and coffee wafted into his beak. Several customers were about, enjoying some warm beverages before heading back out into the snowy weather. Vinur walked in, purchased some vanilla coffee, a bacon sandwich, thenpicked a table to sit down at to enjoy his meal and watch the crowd. To no surprise, Gria soon came by, ordered, and sat with him. "So," she asked. "Any news on you-know-who?" Vinur groaned. "Please don't remind me about her. I'm trying to pretend she doesn't exist." "That bad, huh?" He looked around, and leaned in to Gria. "Don't panic, but she's figured out that centaurs can drain magic." His sister's eyes bugged out and she briefly choked on her food, but she balled up a talon and whacked herself in the chest and looked at him with wide eyes. "Pluck. Well, let's face it, she was gonna figure it out sooner or later." "I'd prefer it to be 'later'. She's so stupid about it too, because somehow it's my fault for not telling her she can go around sucking out peoples' souls!" "Yeesh. Where is she?" "The government's holed her up in one of their... I don't know, departments? She's supposedly still there while they're trying to figure out what to do with her, and I have a feeling that even though we had a little shouting contest, she's gonna be landed with me." Gria rolled her eyes. "Right, because it's ridiculous to assume there's nobird better suited to taking care of a centaur than you." "Well she already knows me! Sort of. She's more familiar with us, and depending on how she acts that may end up counting for a lot. Ugh, she's gonna get nested with me, knowing the D.A.D." "Hey, maybe the whole 'letting everybird know about Cygnus' thing was a fluke?" "That'd be nice," Vinur sighed. "I don't think I can handle taking care of her. She hates me." Gria took a sip and then raised an eyebrow. "Really? What for?" "Remember how she knows she can drain people now? And how it's my fault for not telling her?" She grimaced. "Oh, ow. Have you tried talking it over with her?" "Of course I have!" he exclaimed, then quieted down when he remembered they were still in public. "And it's the same story as ever. I had no 'right' to keep it from her, she's going to live 'only' a hundred thousand years, bullshit like that. She's completely uncaring of the rest of us, a damn sociopath!" His sister frowned as he took another sip from his cup. "I don't know if I'd go that far. You have to look at this from her perspective. Imagine, you've just been turned into a centaur, something you have no idea of. You're in a strange place, you don't know how to communicate with the natives, or what the natives are, or if they mean you well. The world treats you like a natural disaster waiting to happen due to something you have no control over. There is no way home, and all you can do is be shuffled around by the people treating you like said natural disaster, assured that they'll 'eventually' find a way to send you home." "I can't believe you're taking her side!" She held up her talons. "Whoa there, easy. Nobird's ganging up on you, bro. I'm just saying, try to see it from her perspective." "Her 'perspective' is that we're so tiny and insignificant that we can't possibly comprehend her 'perspective'." Gria narrowed her eyes. "Vinur. Cut it out. She's scared and afraid. Who knows what's going through her head right now? She probably has no idea what's going to happen to her, or even what to do! Have some sympathy." ***-_***_-***-_***_-***-_***_-*** Cygnus X-1 Cygnus X-1 knew exactly what to do. Sort of. Mostly. In addition to all the other tasks needed to keep her organic body together, she needed to figure out how to 'drain magic'. There were several methods by which she could accomplish that. She could ask the griffons how Tirek drained magic, but they would just lie to her and she'd then operate off of false information. She could also go to a library and seek out records of Tirek's rampage, but Cygnus wasn't sure if the organics would let her get her hands on the required books. Which left the third option: figuring it out herself. She didn't have any idea where to start, unfortunately. 'Drain magic'. What did that mean? It couldn't mean actually reducing the value of a universal constant; that wasn't something that happened to constants. Cygnus referred back to the dictionary definition of magic, and a brief comparison with dialogue in and out of books suggested that their idea of magic was just the act of a living being manipulating the magical field. So... what did 'draining magic' do? Drain their ability to manipulate the field? Their stored magical potential? Their impact on the magical field? That was what she needed to figure out. Whatever the mechanism was, it was bound to be something within her body's mechanisms. Which meant she had to keep trying until she found the organ that let her do so. Unicorns had horns. Pegasi and griffons had feathers. What part of her body allowed manipulation of the magical field? Her cloven hooves? Her black, glossy tail? Her dry throat? Her dull horns? Cygnus faced one of the random walls and held out her hands, focusing on... something. She clenched the muscles in them, hoping that maybe she'd activate the magic-draining mechanism on her own. She focused harder, her face contorting on its own, and she had to fight to keep a growl from rising in her throat. But absolutely nothing happened. With that having failed Cygnus X-1 turned to her plate, which she had cleaned of lunch not long ago, and repeated the process. First she tried each forehoof, then the forelegs. Then she tried her hind hooves, then her hind legs, then combinations of all four hooves and legs. Then her tail, then her lower body, her upper body, then various parts of her head. Then she tried combinations of those. Nothing worked. The collapsed star continued cycling through the room, attempting various ways of draining magic. She didn't really know what she was looking for, and as a result she didn't know if she was even close to figuring it out, but she had to at least try. It beat sitting around and twiddling her thumbs. Though twiddling her thumbs was oddly comforting. Come on, body, she thought to herself as the ceramic plate refused to give her anything. Come on. I'm not asking for much. Work, damn you! Another problem was that she couldn't let herself be caught attempting to drain magic; it was clear that the griffons had a very, very poor opinion of that practice. Luckily for the moment she was alone - Knock knock knock! Cygnus closed her mouth and put her right foreleg back on the ground, turning to face the door. "Come in," she called. The door opened and admitted a griffon hen, who smiled at her lightly. "Miss X-1, we've reviewed your situation and decided that, for the time being, you are to be given a temporary citizenship pass until such time as your homeland is located." Ha! she thought. Good luck! "So in the meantime we've arranged for you to stay at the home of a citizen. Now, understand we only want to help you." The organic stepped closer, making Cygnus raise a foreleg briefly before putting it back down. She stared up at the dark-colored hen. "With that said, I know you and Mr. Vinur had an argument yesterday. Would you mind talking about it?" Her face turned grim. "There is nothing to talk about. He withheld information from me about how I can go home, thinking he was protecting me. He didn't consider that perhaps I am not a cub, and am intelligent enough to care for myself, yet when I presented this information he somehow made it out to be my fault." Comprehension dawned on her and she tightened her fists. "No, you aren't thinking of - " The organic cut her off. "Mr. Vinur has a very clean record, not so much as an airspeed ticket. His income is stable, his housing is in a safe part of the aerie, and he already has a rapport with you." "Except I can't trust him to be forthcoming with me," Cygnus said. "What else about my abilities is he hiding?" She narrowed her eyes. "What are you hiding? It's clear you all think I'm another 'Tirek' waiting to happen." The griffon didn't give any hint that she was worried about Cygnus, though even if she did Cygnus probably wouldn't have picked up on it; organic body language was stupid. "I'll admit, there is concern about your abilities, however as long as you don't hurt anybird then there's no reason to, um, actually inhibit you." Cygnus nodded. "Is there an option besides Vinur? I am not fond of being close to him." "One small argument isn't enough to give a real perspective. I'm sure that Mr. Vinur had his reasons, if you would hear him out." Cygnus glowered at her. "If you truly can not handle being with him, then all you need to do is file a request and we can have you moved." Did they think she needed special treatment? That she needed to be handled gingerly because one organic annoyed her?! Cygnus was about to open her mouth to refuse, but the words 'reverse psychology' came to mind. ... still, the organic had a point. Organics were volatile, so as long as Vinur corrected his behavior she could tolerate being around him. She sighed. "Very well." The hen smiled. "Good to hear. From what we can tell he's out in work right now, but he'll be back home in a few hours. In the meantime, did you perhaps want something to keep you occupied?" "No thank you," she refused politely. "I am fine. Thanks for telling me ahead of time, though." "No problem. Are you sure you don't need anything?" "Perhaps more water. Beyond that, I can entertain myself." The hen nodded. "Alright then, I'll be back with your water momentarily." The griffon turned around to head to the door, and Cygnus began trying to 'drain' her magic. First she held out her hands at her and clenched them, then as the griffon was leaving the room Cygnus X-1 opened her mouth and imagined sucking magic into her throat. Nothing happened, and the door closed without incident, leaving her alone. Returning to her business, Cygnus kept cycling through the many combinations of ways she might have been able to drain magic. She repeatedly tensed and relaxed various portions of her body in search of the one arrangement that would work. Against all reason, she yawned, her mouth stretching wide and her eyes closing as she did. Time kept passing, planck lengths leading into seconds leading into hours. The hen came back with a glass of dihydrogen monoxide, which Cygnus gleefully drank. With that done, she returned to her search. Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock. Time passed and Cygnus X-1 assumed that, judging by the clock saying it was seven in the afternoon, it was night. She'd had no success in figuring out how to drain magic, and the faint hollowness in her body that indicated hunger was returning. So it was to Cygnus's fortune that at that time, the griffon from before returned to bring her elsewhere. At least that was what she assumed when the hen came in. Interestingly enough, she had a pendant around her throat with a green gem in the middle. "I take it you are here to escort me to Vinur's residence?" the star asked once the door was halfway closed. The organic paused, then chuckled. "Very perceptive, Miss X-1. Unless you feel you can't handle being around him?" Manipulating her tongue and lungs, Cygnus managed to scoff. "Reverse psychology noted. I'll be fine; where is he anyway?" The organic motioned with a wing for Cygnus to follow her. "Right this way, please." The griffon turned around and Cygnus followed after her, continuing to make attempts to drain her magic: all without success. Cygnus X-1 stopped when they left the hallways and entered the main lobby of the building. Vinur was there and seemed even more puny than he already was when compared to the bulky Skyguards flanking him. Vinur looked up from the clipboard in his talons, on which he was writing with a pencil, and she looked back at him with a frown. His face was - so far as she could tell - neutral. She stepped towards him and looked up to meet his gaze. "Vinur." "Cygnus." He sighed. "Listen, I owe you an apology, but now isn't the best time. How about we discuss it over dinner?" She raised an eyebrow. He wanted to apologize? Just as well, even though it wouldn't actually accomplish anything. "Sounds agreeable," she said, watching as Vinur handed the clipboard to the griffon who had guided her to him. Said griffon nodded. "Alright, everything's all set, sir. Don't forget." She reached over to the necklace around her throat, pulled it over her head, and gave it to Vinur. Cygnus raised an eyebrow out of reflex. Hmm? "Now, make sure to help get her employed somewhere, alright? And if any clues come up about her area of origin, let us know immediately." "I will, thank you." He turned back to her. "Alright Cygnus, I was talking with my sister over lunch and once my shift was over, I went to buy some pasta and stuff like that." At her confused look he continued. "You can't live off of just meat. We can, but you can't. Now come on, we need to get going before it gets even darker." Waving goodbye to the government-griffons, though being tailed by the Skyguards, Vinur led her outside and through the streets. She did wonder how Vinur knew what she could eat, but decided to chalk it up to organic instincts. The night was bright. Homes had light streaming out from their windows and into the skies, choking the faintest of the twinkling stars into oblivion. The planet's one moon appeared to rise in the sky, half of its surface darkened. As she walked beside Vinur, she noticed that his pupils slightly reflected yellow-wavelength photons. Odd, she thought, wondering if her eyes did the same. Her legs soon tired from the constant motion of moving one in front of the other. To make matters worse, the slight burning sensation nipping at her eyelids had returned, indicating she was sleepy. Still, she pushed past the sensation of tension and pressure beneath her surface and kept pace with Vinur. Of course she kept trying to drain his magic, or the Skyguards'. At one point she tried looking at the back of his head intently, as if she could drain him through her pupils. Once or twice she yawned as well; exhaustion was ridiculous in organics. By the time they got back to Vinur's home, Cygnus X-1's legs shook with each step. She stumbled inside after Vinur opened the door, made her way to where she remembered the living room to be, and fell down on the couch with a groan. "You okay?" Vinur asked, following after her. "Tired," she huffed into the dark room. "Even such a short, ha, walk does this to me." "Well, you just rest there a bit while I get dinner ready." She heard him go back, exchanging muffled words with the Skyguards that she couldn't make out. How many secrets are they keeping from me? she wondered. There was the click of a door closing. Vinur came back to the living room, lighting some candles with a match he'd apparently gotten while saying goodbye to the guards. Cygnus fixed a glare in his direction once he was done igniting the candles. "You still had no right to keep knowledge of my abilities from me." He sighed. "Look, can we just talk about this over dinner? We'll be more reasonable on a full stomach." "Really? Is that another quirk of organic biology?" The griffon rolled his eyes. "Sure. Come on, I'm not waiting for you." "I need to rest my legs!" she complained. "No you don't, you just want to," he said with a smirk. Cygnus growled low in her throat by reflex. She so wished he was wrong about that. But he wasn't, he was right, so she stood and followed after him as he led her through the house's familiar halls into the dining room. The table was already laid out with food, the chemicals wafting off of them and into her nostrils, giving her primitive good good eat this signals. In front of Vinur's plate were yellowish strips of meat with black flecks on it she guessed to be seasoning. On her plate was a tangled mass of off-white strands, covered in a thin red dust. Is this pasta? she wondered, sitting in the chair given to her. Her legs trembled with the exhaustion of the day, seeming to vibrate beneath her. Disgusting. Still, she took the fork and stabbed it into the food, twirling it and watching the pasta collect around it like an accretion disk. Eventually she looked up at him. "Is there anything else you wish to tell me?" she asked, flexing her left hind leg and right foreleg in an attempt to drain magic. Vinur tensed with a slice of meat in his beak. He swallowed it and look at her. "Would you just drop it? I said I was sorry." "That does not mean you may not be withholding more information from me." She grabbed a nearby cup of dihydrogen monoxide and drained it halfway. "Whether or not you are 'sorry' you may simply think it for the best. So." Cygnus narrowed her eyes at him. "Anything else you want to mention?" He groaned. "Okay, fine. This pendant is a magic suppressor. The gold chain works to suppress magic in an area, and they want it around you at all times to keep you from draining anybird." She raised an eyebrow. "You organics want me to get a job and all that, don't you? Did it not occur to you that I am extremely weak? I am not capable of anything on my own. I need some source of strength, whether by magic draining - " She still wasn't entirely sure how that worked. " - or some other method." "Let's stick with 'some other method'," he said. "Maybe you could try working out?" "Perhaps." She lifted the fork and stuck the gathered pasta in her mouth. The red dust on it had a sharp taste, making Cygnus reflexively wrinkle her nose, but she went through the motions of chewing and swallowing with practiced ease. "I assume you legally need to keep that suppressor around me?" "With some exceptions, such as when I need to fly." Flying was an exception? Why, did it suppress flight as well? Now that she thought about it, Vinur's wings were too small and beat too slowly to provide flight purely on aerodynamics. "Interesting." She devoured a few more strands of food, then fixed him with another glare. "I'm still mad you kept it from me." He threw up his talons. "I already said I was sorry, what more do you want? And what was I supposed to do? I knew nothing about you! You could've been playing dumb to get on my good side. You could've gone mad with power when you learned. You could've done any number of horrible, long-reaching things if I told you about the ability to drain magic and, what? You expect me to just 'trust' you with that knowledge when I don't know anything about you?" "I'm a star, you have no right to keep it from me!" "Prove it!" he snapped. "Prove you're a star, right here and right now!" Cygnus blinked, then hunched down on her seat and simmered quietly, resolving to pick up another forkful. "Exactly!" Vinur said, before turning back to his own dinner. Prove it. Prove she was a star. That was the problem wasn't it? He didn't want to believe her. She could show him her endless memory and the organic would just write it off as her having a good memory. She could show him her complete knowledge of how reality worked, and he'd simply say she was making up the parts he didn't know. Nothing she did could possibly convince him that she was what she said she was... Cygnus made several more attempts at 'draining magic' as she ate. Eventually her plate was nearly clean, and she drained the rest of her drink. By then the pain in her legs had subsided to a gentle throb and she stood. "I am tired, I will go to sleep n-now... noooow," she said, trailing off into a wide yawn. But as she was doing so, her jaw opening wider and wider, suddenly something happened. Something in her skull clicked and shifted, and her mouth opened almost twice as wide as her jaw unhinged. The dryness in her throat, persistent despite drinking, tingled. Cygnus X-1 looked at Vinur in confusion, and then she felt a ripple in the air. Vinur felt it too, as his eyes went wide and he gasped, falling forward onto the table and scratching at it with his talons. A pale blue aura, bright in the dimly lit room, flowed off of his wings, joined together into a single stream halfway to Cygnus, and wound towards her with a ghastly noise. Her throat clenched in instinctive effort and she tried to work her jaw to close it, but then the blue vapor reached her mouth and she wanted more, she wanted all of it. It was light and... and puffy, it made her head swim and her legs shudder. Everything about the light was remarkable and she didn't even want to consider stopping the process, she wanted to take more and more and more until there was none left because it felt so amazing as it flowed down her throat and throughout her tiny organic body. Around her form, tiny arcs of brown psuedo-lightning flickered in and out of existence. She kept the process going, even as Vinur's pupils grew cloudy and he wheezed out 'Cyg... Cygnus...' quietly, even as the necklace's metal warped and the crystal shattered, not stopping until the light flowing from his wings ceased, and the tail end of the stream vanished down her throat and she managed to close her mouth... ***-_***_-***-_***_-***-_***_-*** Discord "So Discord," Fluttershy began, taking a little sip from her teacup. "How was your day?" He floated down into the bendy-straw seat he'd conjured up and curled his long body around its legs. "Oh, charming, thank you. Got to oversee some lovely political discourse between the penguins. You know about the penguins, right?" He was never quite sure how much ponies knew about the outside world; a small town like Ponyville, smack in the middle of the country, was pretty isolated all things considered. The little pony looked thoughtful. "I... think so, they're the ones living far south, right?" She picked up the pitcher in her mouth and poured some of her tea in another cup, then offered it to him. "Yes yes yes, them." He made the cup grow wings and fly up to his side. "So I was in the middle of Anarctia, not like this obviously, I was a random snowflake, and apparently there's a new craze where they slide down the side of glaciers, and into the ocean! Apparently it's all the craze amount the younger penguins!" Fluttershy marveled at that. "Oh, really? That sounds dangerous." "Oh, foo." He caused several cubes in the tea to solidify and jump out into his mouth, where he chewed the crunchy tea up with his fangs. Delicious as ever. "What's life without a little - " He paused as one of his ears flicked. He looked towards the north, frowning. He could've sworn... bah, he was being stupid. His little distraction hadn't escaped Fluttershy's notice. "What is it, Discord?" she asked, looking up at him. Discord turned back to her and waved it off with his lion paw. "Oh, nothing, just thought I felt something. It's probably nothing." Cygnus X-1 The crackles of looks-like-lightning, having gone from brown to red, finally stopped. Cygnus stumbled about on her forelegs as her upper body wobbled, disoriented from her sudden... growth. Before she could look herself over, there was a crash as Vinur slipped out of his chair and crashed to the ground. Cygnus ran around the table to see him. At the same time she noticed that she wasn't tired anymore, nor was her throat dry. The griffon had collapsed, as if his supporting bones turned to dust. His pupils were fogged over and he moaned weakly out of his beak. "Oh," she said. "I think I figured it out." He looked up at her and his pupils shrunk. "Cygnus... no..." he whispered. Cygnus X-1 took the opportunity to look herself over. She had grown slightly so that, instead of being even height with a pony, she was as tall as Vinur. Her brown skin and fur had brightened to a fiery red. Her mane, tail, and the vest on her front had all gone from black to dull red. Reaching up with her left hand, she felt like her horns had gotten just a tad longer and sharper and her arms were a little thicker in proportion to the rest of her. Then there was the slight hollowness in her body. Not hollow like hunger, but as though she were empty of flesh and filled with a buoyant substance. Vinur gasped for breath. "Cygnus, you've gotta... how could... I thought you didn't know how..." "I didn't," she said, turning her hands over and over to look at them from every angle. "I've been trying to figure it out, but that was actually an accident. Hmm. I appear to have grown quite a bit. The implications on mass-energy conservation are... interesting." She looked down at the still recovering griffon, and her face softened. "This hurt you, didn't it?" He barked a laugh, raising himself on his forelegs to look at her more easily. "Hurt me? I'd bet that's what getting impaled feels like! Oh winds, I feel so heavy." As he kept struggling to get back to his feet, Cygnus X-1 winced. She hadn't intended to hurt him. Sure, if it meant getting back to her orbit it was worth it, but... in a way, Vinur had already made up for wronging her with his explanation of the magic suppressor. Though it seemed her magic draining had overpowered it anyway... ... all the same, the thought of having accidentally hurt the griffon made Cygnus's core churn uncomfortably. But she couldn't just give him back his magic, she needed it! Or at least, she needed whatever she'd actually taken from him, rather than 'his' magic. Vinur got up to all fours, looking notably smaller than he had not long ago. "You've gotta give it back," he demanded. "Please." He got closer to her and grabbed Cygnus's right arm with his talons, looking her in the eye. "Please! You're just proving everyone right about their fears about you." "I didn't even know how to take it, let alone give it back!" Whatever 'it' really was in physical terms. She tried to pull away from Vinur, but his strength must've been returning quickly and he just dug his talons in deeper. "No! Figure it out! I can't live without my flight, you have to give it - " As his talons were getting painful, Vinur's eyes suddenly widened in shock and he reeled back, letting go of her. "AAH!" The sudden noise made Cygnus jump back as well, and the reason for Vinur's release soon became apparent; the mist that appeared whenever she was wounded had seeped out of where he'd gripped her. Except this time, instead of murky brown, the gas was brilliant, glowing red, scorching the room with its temperature before it rapidly - more rapidly than before, in fact - sank back in her and healed her wounds. But it didn't just vanish, she could still feel it within her, churning just beneath her skin. The star's eyes widened as realization hit her. Hydrogen gas. It was hydrogen gas, now heated to a bright red blaze. Focusing on the writhing sensation inside of her, Cygnus forced it to move. It felt like moving any other part of her body; her forearms blurred and dissolved into the gas, searing the dining room until Cygnus relaxed, pulling the gas back inside and looked at the panting, dull-eyed griffon. "Do you now believe me to be a star?"