Rainbow Dash was currently harassin-questioning Windborne Kenner about the kind of fighting he did.
For his part, the imitation pegasus was replenishing energy after a loooong night of making sure the magic sample obtained from Rarity didn’t increase its energy density by accident.
Magically-charged glass shrapnel is a safety hazard, after all.
“So, what do you use, Gale King? Storm Hoof? Was it pieced together from the most awesome moves you could find?” She spoke and spoke and spoke as she flittered overhead.
Kenner slowly munched on a sandwich, waiting for his other guest. The day was slow - besides the energetic pegasus on the air - and eating at the café was relaxing. Nothing better than a cup of (decaffeinated) coffee with a cup of cream and six spoonfuls of sugar to get some warmth and peace…
Being able to block sound helped.
“Hey! Hello, Rainbow, Kenner.” Twilight Sparkle - right on time - greeted the pair as she held a notebook and pencil in her magic. “You said something about having a ‘delicate arcane control’ exercise for me to try out?”
“Of course, and Rainbow here is going where we are, so she can tag along if she wants.” He said as he left some bits on the table for the waiter’s tip.
“Where are we going?” Twilight asked, as her own memories of training her magic were all of Canterlot.
“That waterfall near Windsome Falls.” He replied. “The one with actual water; I’ll cart you, so you won’t have to worry about taking a whole day.”
“Really? It’s such-” Twilight was interrupted as a pair of white hooves were wrapped around her barrel.
“Not so much cart as ‘carry’, but you get the idea.” With that, he blasted off in the direction of the forest, with Twilight screaming the whole way… and Rainbow laughing during the same.
A few minutes later, Twilight had her hooves back on solid ground, and was glaring at him.
“What? I may be weaker than the original, but I should remind you that the original can levitate… no, wait, you don’t have those in Tellus.” Kenner stopped his own ranting to think of something, poking his head, trying to get something to come out.
To Rainbow’s amusement, it produced a sound not unlike striking a watermelon.
“Back before this boost, we could have gone everywhere by means of a levitated ship, if we were not trying to be inconspicuous.” He finally said. “And all on him-slash-me, without those little crystal-floater rooms.”
Really, the Crystal Empire had floating crystals on a welcoming gate, and couldn’t think of a better use for them other than aesthetics? Sadly, the airships were going to have to wait until the issue of the patents was solved…
’How do you make a decision on royalties when three-quarters of the developing team is trapped inside a space-time rift too unstable to fix from the outside?’ He frowned, hoping that Celestia had a better idea of what to do.
“So, what are we gonna do here?” Dash said, bringing him out of his mental wandering. “What’s first; smash a boulder? Instant Knock-out kick? Shoot lightning?! No, that’s not it, isn’t it? It’s all going to be different from the usual, so I’m guessing making solid basic stuff and build up from there - agility training weaving through the trees? Do you have a sandbag? No, wait, you are all philosophy and stuff… meditation under the waterfall?”
“Those are excellent ideas for training a pegasus of a lower lever, Dash.” He nodded, turning to Twilight. “While you are going under the waterfall; you, Dash, are more magical and of a higher… level… than other martial artists.”
He closed his eyes and caressed his chin.
“We start with the basics, yes, but for you the bar is set a little bit higher.” He then pointed at the water.
“Now, punch that river in half.”
“What?!” Both mares screeched.
“Come on, it’s not like I asked her to reverse the flow of the waterfall!” He defended himself, crossing his forelegs. “Prospit would try to strangle me for making that reference…”
“And what does a waterfall have to do with magic, anyways?” Dash tried to stall, knowing how much Typhon (and his duplicates) liked to talk.
“Many parts of magic use are extensions of yourself - you internalize it, or put it to use as just part of your own nature expressed into and through the world - which then reacts to it.” He began.
“They’re cute when they get all teachy, no?”
Both mares jumped, startled, and whirled about to face Kat, who just smirked at them.
“Spooking ponies is fun.” Kenner nodded.
“How long have you been there?!” Rainbow pointed a hoof accusingly, trying to make it seem like she was indignant at being spied on rather than ‘spooked’.
“Long before you three showed up. Winsome falls is a great napping spot. Speaking of which, I’d like to get back to it. If you need me,”she said as she began floating up towards one of the few clouds in the area, “I’ll be on my cloud.”
“Hey, that’s my thing!” Dash shouted up at her.
“No, it isn’t.” Kenner interrupted. “Your ‘thing’ is, for now, finding a way to punch a river in half.”
“Just keep it somewhat quiet,” Kat called from her cloud. “Your boss kept me up late last night… and if any of you make a remark on that, I’ll show you why I keep a pocket dimension full of anvils!”
“To re-enact the ‘anvil chorus’ on demand?” Kenner smirked. “Only with heads instead of hammers, I’d bet.”
"Exactly. Tom and Jerry were great teachers of hilarity and pain." With that little comment, Kat curled up on her cloud.
“What does Rarity’s rock have to do with anything?” Twilight asked, getting sidetracked.
“Not that Tom.” Kenner snickered.
He cleared his throat.
“Spells, though, are different.” He never lost track of his conversations, so it was easy to continue. “You have to use your will, knowledge, perhaps some trickery, and brute force. Dinky has an aptitude for a very peculiar variant of ‘Come-To-Life’ spells, but it is merely extending her own nature and mind into the world, not an actualized spell.”
He stood still for a moment, then some blades of grass were blown into the air.
“That, was more like a spell. I tune into my affinity for the air, then use my spatial awareness, training, and energy to coax it into… well, let us say that some of the applications of that skill are actually against my nature.” He chuckled darkly. “Some.”
“Natural and instinctive magic depend on how you see yourself, how you perceive your place in the environment, or simply allowing it to act through you - the work is divided between you and the world. Most spells require you to have the sheer chutzpah to impose a piece of your mind onto the world, or, on the other side of the coin, bring a piece of the world into yourself.”
He walked to Twilight, seeing her straight in the eyes.
“I’m sorry if this seems too forceful.” He whispered.
“Huh?”
“You have reached beyond that which you found safe and familiar.” He declared, as if in possession of authority or judgement. “Have you not?”
“Yes.” She replied before her mind had the time to ponder the question.
“The incident with Trixie made you better understand your standing both in the eyes of others, and your own. Did it not?”
“Yes.” She blinked as once more the words jumped out of her voice before she could command them.
“You have faced your fears, and overcame them, be it thanks to your friends, or in their behalf. You stared Nightmare Moon and Discord, and confronted them, bested them, despite knowing of the difference between them and you. Did you not?”
“Yes.” She was better prepared, standing to face whatever trial she had to face.
“You understood the way you were connected to the world; you knew of your place in existence. You did not need friends.” At this, Twilight almost flinched, but between the daze of whatever spell Kenner wove, and her own determination, she stood her ground. “You then learned a new connection - a new place was offered to you. You sacrificed your old stance, that old connection; you valued it, you invested your time and emotion into it. You left a gap in your soul, and filled it with something new; you gathered your desires and determination where that old part of the world once stood, reaching through the hole left in your heart, using your willpower to push- to pass through the loss, no longer leaving it hollow. You altered your old mentality, and changed how you perceived reality itself. Now, feel it; sense yourself as you do your magic and touch the world through it.”
Twilight wobbled on her hooves, almost falling down, if not for Dash having supported her.
“IT is no longer just a feeling in your heart.” Kenner spoke solemnly, but without the imposing tone. ”You can’t do much, yet, but now you should feel a little more like when you used the Elements both times, right?”
“Uh… huh…” She mumbled, eyes not focusing on much of anything.
“What the hell was that?!” Dash whispered harshly.
“She’s the Bearer for the Element of Magic!” He replied, in the same harsh whisper. “She’s different from other ponies in nearly everything, but she’s… I don’t- Look, remember Clover the Clever? Clover was basically ‘Twilight-lite’, and purged the whole continent of Windigoes! And nearly died - something that the plays and carols don’t really mention, by the way - and Twilight could very well have something similar happen to her if she doesn’t leave the knife-edge and leaps into the vast mysteries that make up Magic at the wrong time!”
“What did you do to her?” Dash pressed a hoof against his chest, although she couldn’t actually push him.
“I… kind of stole her Breath away to get her to respond from the heart.” He confessed, using a hoof of his own to get Dash to stop poking him.
“I am so going to get you for that.” Dash scowled at him, pressing her head against his.
“Good, maybe you can get to use your Element without actually wearing it, again.” He nodded, making Dash stumble for a second.
“Whu-huh?”
“The Element of Loyalty always has a chance; if you are smart, dedicated, or simply surround yourself with ponies like that, you will always find a way.” He replied. “What did you feel when you saved Rarity from falling?”
“Oh…” Dash stepped back as Twilight pulled herself up.
“You are the Bearers, Dash, and that alone puts you a level above; everyone has an Element, whenever they know it or not, but only you can direct it like you do.” He said. “After all, ‘Magic’ can’t be the rarest if there are always just one of each.”
“Discord… ugh…” Twilight groaned, remembering her first encounter with the mad…being…all too well.
“The jewels are just that, a convenient body. You hold their spirits, and you should start thinking a little more about what that means.”
“More often than not it means she gets blasted by them and turned into an alicorn,” Kat snipped from her cloud.
“There are more complicated circumstances than those.” Kenner shot back. “She made a spell.”
“So, wait, I write a spell, then I get an Awakening powered by the Elements?” Twilight asked incredulously, feeling like she was about to fall down again.
“Yeah…it is sometimes... a little bit of a…suboptimal course of action.” Kenner grimaced as he spoke. “Particularly in the worlds where alicornhood means automatical immortality, and being a Bearer doesn’t, or getting the special powers of the little locked box of plot-significance doesn't make you immortal, either.”
“How… ‘suboptimal’?” Twilight asked with clear trepidation.
“I... I’ve seen you in a coffin far, far too many times, Twilight.” Kenner sighed and slumped, making him look and sound older by decades. “In many, many cases... you actually forget, if not outright ignore the very lesson that granted you your Awakening, and things go downhill from there. I have seen versions of you that were more worthy of the power, titles, and station after Discord’s defeat than the week after your… crowning achievement.”
The way he spoke those last words tickled something in the minds of the ponies, but decided to inquire other things.
“What could I do… what could I become that made my counterparts so unworthy?” Twilight whispered, dreading the answer, but fearing the ignorance much more.
“You become little else than the dumping grounds for tiresome paperwork, and given stressful situations to resolve with little-to-no-forewarning of the proper procedures. Heck, it can be interpreted that your counterparts aren’t actually trusted to make decisions on their own! You were tricked into Awakening, transformed against your will - as I already said -, gotten so many titles and responsibilities to go along the non-consensual rewriting of your destiny that your meager social and personal life often gets wrecked... mostly by your own hoof from wielding powers you might have deserved but were unprepared to wield, and your opinion is ignored.”
Kenner turned up towards Kat.
“If you see the so-called ‘Friendship Castle’, that is actually a result of a really stupid plan that was pushed into Twilight, without giving her the option to come up with one better, and that endangered not only her friends, but the whole world.” He spoke in anger, making Dash and Twilight fear he would darken the sky again.
“The Celestia of this world would never approve of such a thing, and, please, try to get that world’s Twilight to start thinking for herself, and act more as the equal she is supposed to have become.” He pleaded, perhaps a little desperately. “Not that she should ignore what the others say, but rather, have her use her own mind…Most Twilights have prodigious minds to go along their great hearts, and it’s a waste that they shut them down to be bucking Yes-mares.”
“I’ll let one know when I come across them,” Kat assured him. “Still, alicorn Twilights can be fun. Especially that one I saw. She tried taking off and it sounded like that weird car from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.” She burst into giggles at the memory.
“I’m not saying they aren’t good, but that not all of them should become princesses, or that, even those that are perfect material might not grow into the role…or even be accepted.”
“You mean…Twilight gets killed.” Dash said, swallowing a lump. “And just because she woulda made something change that some... some morons wanted so badly that they would-”
Dash’s heated ranting was stopped by Twilight grabbing her into the tightest hug her quivering legs would allow her to give, making Dash simply shed hot tears of impotent rage.
“Aw see what ya did?” Kat griped. “Ya made the children cry. That’s it, you are so not going near Kuna when she hatches, mister.”
“Kuna has her destiny as a clean slate.” He frowned at Kat. “Twilight and the girls, however, are more vulnerable to external influences, and they need to know in case they find themselves face-to-face with an alternate. I was not joking when I compared Twilight to Clover - this filly gave a funeral and an eulogy to a dead bird, and yet stared down Discord and wanted to go after Nightmare Moon solo; Twilight Sparkle is one of the greatest ponies I have had the pleasure to meet, and I am going to do my absolute best to keep this one from becoming exhibited in a crystal coffin!”
He was huffing and grumbling...
“Bah, now I need a smoke, but they don’t do jack to ink bodies.” He muttered.
“You know smoking is bad, whether you feel the ill effects or not. It’s not healthy~!” Kat sing-songed.
“With my loadout of healing abilities, it’s not that different from your chocolate ice-cream.” He riposted with a smug grin.
“Don’t you dare bring my ice cream into this!” It didn’t help her case that she was holding an ice cream bucket near her… or the spoon that was in her mouth.
“But I can use the smoke to banish demons and spirits! All ice-cream ever did to me was go to my thighs…” He gripped much in the same way Rarity did, which helped the girls’ mood improve some.
An anvil appeared next to Kat’s cloud. “That better not be a fat joke,” she threatened.
"Don't you push your insecurities on me, missy! You refused to tell me if that skirt made my butt look big!" He paused to clear his throat. "Sure... your opinion of it lead to something nice, but you still dodged the question!"
Of course, his teasing led to tsundere rule number three: there will be pain. And there was as the anvil materialized above his head and subsequently landed on it.
"Crétin!" Kat called through her deep red face. She huffed and curled back up on her cloud.
"You know, this is just as fun as when I'm on this side." He commented. "Of course, I do prefer to be the girl, since I look cute in glasses."
"So... you're not hurt." Twilight stated, seeing how he was supporting the weight of an anvil with his neck.
"Nah, although the Joke gauge is currently in her favor." He gently pushed Twilight towards the river. "Get under the water, and, hopefully using some of the restraint techniques you already know, gently allow your energy to trickle into the water - picture it as letting ink flow into the water, and follow it, taking note of the shapes it takes, and try to note the smallest, sharpest of strings possible as they dissipate. Hold them as long as you can, make them as large as you wish, maybe even create patterns yourself."
Twilight allowed the water to splash on her, not unlike a cold shower - although that freshwater smell was relaxing.
She tentatively touched the water - that is, ‘touched’ with magic. She had enough to turn the river black, if she so desired, but that would be defeating the point. The princess had always emphasised restraint when trying new spells - her font was enormous, far larger than any other pony the princess had met, excluding a smattering of alicorns, and Twilight having her own Awakening was never out of the question.
She was always careful - controlled. A small flow could turn into a geyser in but a moment, just as had happened during her entrance exam. She had power such that no spell was truly beyond her, but lacked the focus and control that the grand masters of the Academies had; that put her at a disadvantage, as she had to learn to control that wild firehose first, tame it into the shape intended, instead of having the shape of her will ‘grip’ reality, then working on her strength until it became able to ‘soften’ the world’s state-of-being into the desired spell.
She ‘touched’ the water…and the water parted ways as if she had been trying to hold it. That was not the way, then. She then tried something a little different.
When a pony touched something with their magic, they essentially touched it with a part of their beings - the font. That day she had consciously levitated her first object, a simple page in a book, had made a little miracle happen inside of her.
Her mind had touched the page, focused on it - its texture, its weight. She felt its essence in the world. The ink absorbed into it. She could feel the tree it once was, and the trees it once called ‘neighbors’. The essence of the forest, and that of the birds flying through and resting in. The water upon the leaves and the water drank through the roots - it tasted divine. The ground upon the roots was soft/comforting/stable, the stone beneath the soil was tough/enduring/nigh-eternal.
Then her mind... put it to the side. Celestia had explained that the conscious mind had a hard time trying to ascend beyond the physical realm, that the unbridled exposure to Magic was mind-boggling even when it was described to another - how much more overwhelming would it be to the one experiencing it? It touched them and left its mark eternal, however, and that was something that nothing would ever take away, for the beauty and the depth of the experience was something that the soul would fight to keep.
And when it comes to the mind and soul, size is meaningless.
Few were the ones that truly touched the Astral Realm, or the vortex that is Magic, with their conscious minds. She could try; she had felt the sheer... uniqueness of the spoon she used to eat, and could recall the faint smell of heat, likely from the very fires that had allowed the unassuming tool to be shaped into its final- no, current form.
The way Typhon spoke of the wind, she suspected his mind was one of those.
So, now she had to allow her magic to seep into the water like dripping ink to feel the flows and better understand them in herself. Magic which, according to Celestia, was part of the very essence of herself. It was as much exercise as it was meditation as it was self-discovery.
Clever.
So, she had to put her nature/essence/spirit/self into the water, but without getting herself lost into the history of the water, the rocks it touched, the soil it ran through, or the sky it fell from.
What was the spirit/nature of water, in the context of this exercise?
What was water? What did it represent? Well, she saw the ripples produced by the fall itself and the wind. Sensitivity? Grace, fluidity. Typhon had already said some of those things: Adaptability - pour it into a cup, it becomes the cup. Depth? Size hidden from view. Ice was water made solid. It changes, but doesn’t change. It takes different forms, but the essence remained the same. In a steam engine, it conveys the power. In the blood, it carries the substances that fuel the body - she was not about to go on a tangent of medical knowledge. Water rarely was the power itself, instead being its conduit - that which made it reach its target…or that which washed it away, to dilute it like sugar.
Well, when she had used the Elements, she knew she had touched the hearts of the others as they had hers, and everypony else whose hearts they had touched, and so on and so on.
She just allowed her magic to touch the water, but the way she had her friends' hearts.
'Hmm. The water looks very nice.'
Outside, Rainbow Dash and Kenner stared at the river, seeing how the water sparkled and shone in a variety of colors.
About half a mile long.
"Dang, Twilight is better at concentration than I though." Kenner said with an impressed whistle. "She's holding it very well, although she could have tried starting smaller - that's kind of the whole point."
"No kidding." Dash deadpanned. "Say, how does that compare to you?"
"No contest, I'm nowhere near close to that. She's doing this on accident - I took a whole lot of inner peace and Genbu's help to get ten meters of visible change, and I still don't have that much raw power; by myself, anyways."
"And how fast are you, then?" She asked, eyeing him suspiciously.
"Very much so, but the way you train had you pretty much catch up really fast. And you can go faster, anyways - speed like that isn't my style." Really, Dash wasn't still nearing the three-quarters mark in her ladder and she was faster, although he had other advantages to go with his level.
Not to mention, y'know, actual training in combat.
Still Rainbow circled her intended target, like an eagle.
'No, wait; I'm pre-tty sure those are vultures... I need Fluttershy in here.' Dash frowned.
She could do it, for sure. Kenner had admitted he was, at the moment, at his old hundred-percent; he had done things like that much, much earlier than that point.
She wasn't just some... some lazy jock! She could figure it out!
Alright. Pegasus magic, her body, and water. He said she had the ability to work it out.
For starters, clouds were made of water - clouds for building and living had other stuff, and her own mother made a fortune with cloud hydroponics, but she had to start from the basics.
Cloud = Water and a whole lotta air.
She busted clouds, sliced them right in half with just a brush of her pinions. It was easy! Just reach beyond herself, making the field of magic she used to fly sharper than any knife in her kitchen, and let nature take care of the rest.
She ascended, then, at the apex, just allowed herself to feel that brief moment of weightlessness.
The sky. Herself, wings spread wide. A total lack of gravity.
Freedom.
Surrendering to the moment.
And then it's gone. She felt gravity tug at her, and she slowly turned to face the river.
A sharp movement from her wings, and she rocketed towards the earth like a missile. Feeling the air rub and snake around her body, keeping it from messing up her path with rapid-fire adjustments from her wings and the energy in her body; some subtle, others more forceful.
Typhon said it all the time: Presence, absence, and everything in between. It gave her wings lift; it gave her the sharpness she needed. Typhon made it dance and cut and bludgeon with his mind, so putting her body to it should do something really great.
Twilight was doing something really, really sparkly with her brain! Rainbow herself made tornadoes and even her namesake without having to push herself!
So now she would.
She couldn't Rainboom, not with Twilight right under the waterfall and all that forest, but she could push other things than just her body!
Feeling the speed, she flapped her wings, again, again, and then turned parallel to the river, going with its flow without touching it.
She could feel it radiating from the water - Twilight's touch. Very well, she would add her own.
She twisted, letting her own momentum carry her forward, as she extended a wing and pushed with her will.
Being the most magical pegasus in Ponyville - and a whole lot of other places - she left an invisible trail almost as long as her own colorful contrail.
Briefly leaving a gap that divided the river in halves.
"Alright; I knew they could do things like that, saw a few myself, and it still surprises me a little." Kenner mumbled to himself. "Hopefully it'll help them should they come across some of their less-pleasant alternates."
From up above, a Kat’s typical portal appeared and vanished, the mare floating down the ground. Before any of them could say a word, she ran past as fast as she could, tears running from her eyes.
“She’s a whirlwind of emotion.” Kenner whispered. “I need to get in touch with the boss.”
He sat down, closed his eyes, and inhaled as deeply as he could before blowing out everything outside of himself from his focus.
*****
(A hidden lab deep within the earth beneath Ponyville - no, not Twilight’s, and not BonBon’s either… nor Vinyl’s… or the Cake’s)
It was the size of a penny, and about as thin. It was crystal-clear and the faintest light produced a dazzling glittering from within - sparks of all colors that he could just look at all day.
Shaped like a lozenge, because why not? A glass’s worth of Rarity’s magical essence, plus a heaping of nature’s own, and large amounts of ‘pressure’ and reagents later, he had a thumbnail’s worth of Rarity-natured auracite…
Really wanted something more neutral, but it was meaningful, and meaningful magic was more potent and easier to wield. Cheaper on the long run, too.
He inserted it into the metal tube he had been shaping with his will - and a modicum of Byakko’s assistance - and prepared it for the next step.
Which would have to wait, as his presence around town detected a very distraught Kat running at full gallop towards the house.
Just as he made an ear twitch towards the hallway, the security wards registered a great impact devoid of malicious intent. The wards activated, and the hinges gave in to prevent damage to the door or the poor pony that rammed into it.
’Kat.’ It was as much a thought as it was the signal that made his body turn into wisps of wind and reform inside the living room, where Kat was sobbing as she clutched her memorial stone.
He cantered closer and leant his neck so that it would gently weight on hers, making her turn around and wrap her arms tightly around him, still crying.
The air around the stone told him something fascinating, and maybe even uplifting.
One of the carvings, that of her brother, had been crossed out.