//------------------------------// // 2: It Gets Better, Right? // Story: The Will of Magic // by law abiding pony //------------------------------// Twilight Sparkle nervously chewed on a piece of bacon as she read over the test data on her tablet. Her friends sat all around her, enjoying their own meals. Twilight Velvet and Night Light were silently eating at the head of the table. Most of that silence was caused by the piles of food the Rainbooms had devoured with gusto. That is with the exception of Rarity who had consumed two plates of pancakes, bacon, eggs, and toast with lady-like gusto. She was fairly adamant that there was a difference. I swear, it’s like having seven Shining Armors over for dinner, Velvet mused with a half-smirk. But I’m not going to complain if they have a healthy appetite. Agent Thompson stood alone at the kitchen door holding a plate of his own. The man was an ‘honored’ guest in the Sparkle house, but he never sat at their table unless asked. Were it not the day after the attack, and the fact that all the girls had seemingly permanent pony ears, the sunny summer day would have been as cheerful as any other. Now however, everyone, save Pinkie Pie, was fretting in one way or another. Sunset Shimmer was pouring over the data on her own tablet, and Rainbow Dash was texting Soarin. She put her phone down to look up at her two smartest friends. “Hey, Twi, Sunet, if you guys are done with tests and whatnot, I really want to visit Soarin. The docs say he can go home, but he lives alone and I want to watch over him just in case.” Rarity, who was sitting next to her, put a reassuring hand on Rainbow’s shoulder. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea. What if those ne'er-do-wells who attacked us go after you?” With a flash of indignation, Rainbow summoned her wings and pounded on the table, rattling several plates. Twilight and Sunset cringed at the wings being summoned. “Then I’ll bust some heads!” She looked over at Twilight and Sunset. “You guys got the Feds here, you don’t need me to stick around, and I can’t leave Soarin by himself while he’s dealing with a concussion.” “Rainbow, I understand how you feel, but I really don’t think you should be using your magic right now.” Sunset lifted her table displaying several readouts that were lost to Rainbow. “Our magic is giving off readings I can’t make heads or tails of. It might not be safe to pony up.” She looked up at one of her pony ears and flicked it absently. “Well, anymore than we already have.” “There’s no telling what using magic might do to us right now,” Twilight added worriedly as she tugged on her ears. “we could all be stuck in pony-up mode.” “Fine,” Rainbow growled as she made her wings vanish. “But someone’s gotta take care of Soarin for the next day or so.” The girls turned to Agent Thompson who had momentarily stopped eating to listen in. “I’ll have dispatch send someone to look after him. Unless you’re willing to play bait.” Velvet spiked with anger. “You want to use her as bait?!” Thompson gave the flustered woman a deadpanned look. “She’s a consenting adult with a modicum of combat training.” He refocused on Rainbow and the girls. “The agency already dispatched a team to take a heavier hand in your protection. But having one of you seemingly isolated could draw out the suspects.” Masking what he was doing, Thompson carefully studied everyone’s response to the idea. Rainbow Dash surprised no one by wolfing down the last of her waffles and eggs before jumping to her feet. “Fine by me. But no promises on not smashing the punk before your boys show up to my ‘rescue’.” Caught between her obligations and not wanting Rainbow to be the only one in the line of fire, Applejack piped up as well. “Well Ah hope you got more than just one team. If we’re goin’ with a bait idea, Ah volunteer as well.” She wilted a little under Velvet’s piercing glare and Night Light’s worried frown. “Well, it’s plantin’ time for the summer crops and mah family needs all the hands they can get. Besides, if those guys think they can’t get Rainbow, then they might come after me, what with the farm being so open and all.” Twilight flustered at the prospect of her friends leaving and got half-way out of her seat. “But we still don’t know what’s going on. Why can’t we dismiss our pony ears? Why is our magic still climbing, and who attacked us in the first place? We might need to run more tests as time goes on, and if all of you are scattered around town, we might not get all the data we need.” Sunset was about to speak when Rarity politely cleared her throat. “While I can see this isn’t a normal pony up, since Fluttershy and Rainbow’s wings are not stuck in the ‘on’ position, making it seem like we’re spread out and vulnerable could at least answer that last question. Assuming the riff raff come after us again, of course.” “I don’t like it,” Sunset began as she frowned at the data on her tablet, “but…” She suppressed the flash of anger making her want to pound the table. “Our equipment can only tell us so much. If Thompson’s men could figure out how this happened from the people who did it then we can fix this much faster. Pinkie’s face lit up as she caught on. “Oh! Sort of like how antivenom is made by capturing the animal that bit you.” Twilight blinked at bit and looked at her parents for guidance. Velvet scowled with her arms crossed but ultimately said nothing while Night Light shrugged in begrudging acceptance. “I - guess that would probably work fastest.” Twilight bit her lower lip as she flipped through the tablet, searching for something that would give her a valid argument for everyone to stay here where it was safe. However the readings teased her with a solute that always felt out of reach. Eventually, Fluttershy had to pat her on the back to get Twilight to see the futility. “Not like we can do much about it in any event,” Twilight finally admitted with sad frown. Fluttershy shored up her courage while giving Twilight a much needed hug. “Um, Twilight, Sunset, if Rainbow’s going off, I can call the shelter and tell them I can’t make it today. I’m sure they’ll understand.” “Thanks, Fluttershy,” Twilight replied with a faint smile while Sunset nodded slightly in agreement. The two scientists looked to Rarity and Pinkie Pie, with the fashionesta sighing while raising a hand to her chest. “Well I’m staying here for the day at least.” She cast Thompson a derisive glance. “Missing a day or so of business is far better than your gorillas with guns holding a high-noon gunbattle in my shop.” Thompson suppressed the urge to groan while Rarity addressed her friends. “If no one so much as pokes their nose at Rainbow or Applejack, then I’ll reopen my shop. Secret organizations or not, I can’t run a business if I’m not there and all, and I’m not going to live in fear.” Past today, anyway. Pinkie Pie shrugged helplessly at her friends. “Sorry girls, but with summer starting, Sugarcube Corner is going to be busier than beehive during triple rush hour for like the next two weeks, not to mention the twins. I can’t let the Cakes down.” Thompson rubbed the bridge of his nose in mild exasperation with a moderate dose of approval mixed in. I knew I should have asked dispatch for more than one tac team. At least with Rarity and Fluttershy waiting a day it will buy us time to get more boots out here. “I’ll have people stationed at each location within the hour.” Twilight wanted to protest, but caught herself flopped back in her seat with a defeated frown. “Alright. If we do manage to find something, we’ll let you know.” Fluttershy quietly thanked Velvet and Night Light for their hospitality and grabbed her backpack and keys. Sunset gave her a quizzical look while Twilight intensely focused on the data while rubbing her forehead. “Umm, everyone left their cars at the school, so I have to drive. Plus I need to see my parents and pack some clothes. It wouldn’t be fair to them to tell them about this over the phone.” “Okay, just be safe getting back,” Sunset replied with warm caution. And I’ll just pull some more people out of thin air Thompson grumbled to himself as he pulled out his phone. Within the hour, Twilight, Sunset, and Rarity were left alone on Sparkle manor’s marble front porch, as they watched Velvet and Night Light drive off to work. Spike stood by Twilight’s side, ever ready to defend her. The parents only left after making sure at least one federal agent was going to arrive shortly. Rarity waved goodbye to them before reaching for her phone. “I better check in with my family as well. Shame they’re out of town at a time like this.” Spike started sniffing the air, picking out all kinds of odors from the surrounding neighborhood. “I’m going to check the fence,” he announced boastfully. “There won’t be a single bad guy that gets past me!” Twilight smiled and scratched his head before hugging him. “My fearless protector. Just remember not to wander off the property again. I don’t care what that squirrel did, okay?” “He had it coming,” Spike replied with undirected ire. “Think he can steal my beggin strips does he?” Twilight watched Spike run off into the yard while Rarity wandered back into the house for some privacy. Twilight remained quiet until Spike ran out of sight towards the back of the house then she turned towards Sunset. “You wrote a letter to pony-me last night right?” Sunset nodded. “Has she written back yet?” “She should have by now,” Sunset reentered the house while waving at Twilight to join her. “Let’s go check.” Both girls rushed up to Sunset’s guest room on the second floor. The room had a moderate mess about it. Sunset’s bed was undone, and a few articles and knick knacks were out of place. Twilight tried to keep her need for exacting order in her home from driving her up a wall while Sunset withdrew the journal from her backpack. After hearing about Princess Celestia from pony-me, I don’t know how Sunset managed to stay such a clutter bomb during her time in the castle. Oblivious to Twilight’s musings, Sunset flipped the journal open to find the right page. “Hmm… Here we go.” Twilight caught herself before she could bend down to toss Sunset’s dirty clothes in the hamper by the door. “Sorry, Sunset Shimmer, but you’ve caught me while I’m out of town.” Both girls’ sagged at the book’s pre-recorded message. Of all the things she could have copied from earth, she just had to emulate answering machines didn’t she? Sunset continued to speak with much less enthusiasm “I’ll be back in Ponyville within a few days.” Sunset slumped onto the bed and placed the journal back into her bag. “Well, it’s not like she’d be able to do too much anyway. Not without a horn anyway.” “We can run a few more tests,” Twilight suggested meekly. “See if our magic is stabilizing.” “It’ll give us something to do at least.” Sunset idly scratched an itch between her shoulderblades as she got up to follow Twilight to the basement lab. Were it not for Rarity chatting away in the den near the stairs, the house would have been eerily quiet to Sunset’s ears. The basement stretched out to be on par with the ground floor above. With a flip of a switch, the fluorescent lighting snapped on, revealing a plethora of scientific equipment. Sadly, a good number of items were broken or still in disarray from last night’s testing. Twilight made her way over to the headset for monitoring brainwaves. “Oh good, the cotton candy disappeared.” She grabbed the headset to put it back while Sunset surveyed the damage. Most the mess had come from the girls’ magic overloading the various machines, sending things flying everywhere. Thankfully, the mountain of apples and cotton candy were gone, but half the lab was still a disaster area. “This is going to take a while.” Rainbow Dash all but leapt out of Fluttershy’s van as it pulled into Soarin’s driveway. He lived in a one story brick apartment complex within walking distance of the university, so there was no need to get her car first. “Thanks, Fluttershy. I’ll see you girls later when Soarin’s feeling better.” Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Fluttershy waved at her. “Remember he needs lots of rest,” Fluttershy called out. “Yeah, no hanky panky, RD!” Applejack chided with a smirk. “Duh! Who do you take me for?” Rainbow snarked back. “He’s recovering from a concussion remember?” Ignoring Applejack’s banter, Rainbow fled the parking lot and made her way to Soarin’s place. The van lingered just a little longer to watch Rainbow run off. I hope Thompson’s team gets here soon, Fluttershy fretted nervously before driving off once Rainbow rounded the corner. As Rainbow fished for her keys, the wind gusted past her strongly enough to make her pony ears to flick. The act shot them back to the forefront of her attention. Damn, I don’t want Soarin worrying over me. I better pony up fully and just roll with it. Upon summoning her wings, Rainbow unlocked the door to Soarin’s apartment and let herself inside. There were moving boxes everywhere in the front TV room along with most of the furniture being out of place to make space for them. Attached to the den was a full kitchen towards the back, with a short ‘L’ shaped hallway linking an office, bedroom, and bathroom beyond. In Rainbow’s mind, it was practically a castle for a college student. It wouldn’t be long before it became both Soarin and Rainbow’s castle. With the door closed and locked behind her, Rainbow Dash let her mask drop. Much of her bravado and decidedly-tomboyishness took a backseat at the thought of her injured boyfriend. “Soarin? You awake?” Her ears bent forward and twitched for a reply, but none came. With the low ceiling and doorframes, Rainbow was forced to stay on the ground as she navigated the treacherous path between the door and the hallway. Must be asleep. With that in mind, she kept quiet and crept her way towards Soarin’s bedroom. It was dark with the windows drawn, but she smiled all the same at the sight of Soarin’s sleeping form. Going to have to thank Spitfire for driving him home. “Hey, pony girl,” Soarin said with a smirk, knocking Rainbow out of her thoughts. She cursed silently for waking him up before fixed him with a snide grin. “You come over just to mock poor little ol’ me?” “Hardly.” Rainbow sat on the bed next to him and brushed some errant hair out of her eyes. “Doctor Dash is here to make sure you stay off your feet for the day.” It took the rest of the morning, but Twilight’s basement laboratory was once again in pristine order. Twilight clapped her hands over a trashcan to clear some of the dust off while Sunset Shimmer wiped the sweat off her brow. “Whew, at least with Pinkie and AJ absent, we shouldn’t have to worry about magic food blasting all the equipment around.” Twilight nodded and hummed in agreement. “All this time spent cleaning has bought us enough time to see if our magic levels have changed at least.” “Right, and Fluttershy should be back soon too.” Sunset spied the spectrometer a few tables over and waved Twilight to join her over to it. Unlike Twilight’s first spectrometer, this refrigerator sized model wisely did not store or trap magic. Instead, it gave much more detailed readings. “You want to go first?” “Sure,” Twilight chirped a she checked her phone. A specialized application notified her that Thompson had come through with the defense team who were staking out along the street and around the outside of the house. With the notification of protection, the thread of terror she felt at being kidnapped or attacked again died away. The last thing we need is some criminal interrupting our research. The more we know now, the less pony-me needs to figure out on her own. Twilight stepped up to the spectrometer while Sunset manned the console. The pair had already prepared the machine ahead of time while cleaning, so Twilight’s magical field appeared almost immediately. Similarly to an x-ray, Twilight formed a black silhouette on the display screen with a pale blue shell enveloping her. The blue field had jitters and weak points cropping up and fading in a slow but constant fashion. That much at least, was par for the course with Twilight. However, what took Sunset’s breath away was a single dense column of mana represented as a deep red going from just below Twilight’s heart, coursing up along her spine before terminating at a bright spot at her forehead. The spot itself was a small bulge that should have no place on the human skull. The final thing that chilled her to the bone was that Twilight’s brain was permeated with a massive amount of mana on top of it all. “H- how - this wasn’t there last night!” “W-what wasn’t there?” Twilight asked worriedly at Sunset’s outburst. She felt a twinge of pain on her forehead and started rubbing it only to feel her skull was a little thicker at that point. Yet any exploration of this thickness was cut short by Sunset Shimmer walking over to Twilight. “Switch places with me. I’m really hoping what I just saw was a side effect of your…” The need for haste aside, Sunset still walked on eggshells about it. “unique mana signature. Just record what you see in me.” Sunset herself was also feeling as if an icepick was starting to lightly tap its way out of her skull. “O-okay.” Trying to keep from rubbing her sore head, Twilight manned the console and freaked when she saw the last ten seconds of her scan looping on screen. “What the hell!? I’ve never had this much mana before.” “I know, but it’s the funnel to your forehead that’s worrying me more than anything else,” Sunset said from behind the scanner. She banged the side of the machine a few times to jump Twilight back to her work. ‘Sorry, sorry,” she reset the scanner to Sunset, which was becoming increasingly difficult. Even with both hands on the keyboard, the lump on her forehead was slowly, but noticeably, growing larger as it pushed on her skin. The machine gave off a quiet hum as Sunset fretted and tapped her foot impatiently. Please let this just be an abnormality. By Celestia just give me that. Not even knowing what to expect anymore, Twilight bit her nails waiting for the image to pop up. When it did, she could only look at it in stunned silence. Sunset’s aura was clean and solidly blue throughout. However it was the intense collum of mana between her torso and forehead that left Twilight speechless for several seconds. “Recording it now,” Twilight said mechanically as her brain went on autopilot. Feeling around with her fingers, and looking at her reflection on the scanner’s reflective surface, any hope Sunset Shimmer had left died when she felt the skin around her bulge thinned to the point where a small nub of ivory revealed itself. We’re in so much trouble. “I’ve got a recording for you, Sunset,” Twilight said with shared fear. When Sunset didn’t respond, Twilight moved around the machine to spy her friend trembling while hugging herself. In that moment, Twilight dearly wished Spike was here if only to hug his furry self. “This is bad, Twilight, really really bad.” Any sort of talk between them was interrupted as a bloodcurdling scream resounded throughout the house, freezing the thought processes of both girls. “Rarity!” they cried in unison. Their own plights forgotten for the moment, they bounded up the stairs as fast as their legs could carry them. Sunset took the lead, charging up the stairs and almost plowing into Rarity at the top. Rarity barely managed to sidestep away, and grabbed the balcony railing to keep from falling. In her attempt to dodge the sudden appearance of Rarity, Sunset spun to the right, and barely managed to keep her balance. Twilight briefly checked to see if Sunset was okay before moving to comfort Rarity. Rarity’s face would have been sheet white were she not alabaster already. “Heavens, girls, as if all we’ve gone through wasn’t enough already!? Now I have a massive pimp-ha-ha-haal!”, Rarity cried out with tears welling up. “It’s not a pimple,” Sunset replied with a tremor in her voice. “It’s a horn,” Twilight added with even deeper worry. “A... horn?” Rarity gasped with an intrigued tone, her tears evaporating. With that perspective in mind, Rarity gently tapped the ivory protrusion and took a compact mirror out to properly investigate it. Interesting… “Well, that’s different then.” Seeing her friend calm down, Twilight’s curiosity practically forced her to touch the bony nub on her own head as well. Sadly, she was quickly falling into a panic attack. “What are we going to do? What if this doesn’t stop at just ears and horns!?” Sunset’s breath hitched when she felt her horn push a little further out. “We - we’ll think of something. Just got to remember to keep from panicking. Can’t think and panic at the same time.” “I agree,” Rarity said with enough calm to make Twilight’s eye twitch. “I’m sure you girls will come up with a solution. Out of all the crises we’ve gone through together, some ears and horns are pretty low on the totem pole. This is nothing compared to that private army out of Guam.” The memory of the incident made the other girls shudder. Thankfully, it did the trick and Twilight started to calm down as well. “You might be right, Rarity.” She looked to Sunset who was wrestling with Rarity’s logic and the shock of her changes. “If this is all that attack did was forcing us to become pony-ish, then it shouldn’t be anything we can’t fix eventually.” For the sake of her friends and her sanity, Sunset dropped to her knees, covered her face and gave off a long slow sigh to release the tension. “…Okay,” she said at length. “You’re right. Compared to that I guess this is small stuff. The feds can handle finding the guy who hit us with the beam while we find a way to get back to normal. We’re going to find a way to fix this, girls,” Sunset declared with thready conviction. “Absolutely!” Twilight added with mounting confidence. Rarity’s muse was already dancing with ideas on how to modify some of her wardrobe to accommodate a horn. She had to contain herself to sound both sober and concerned. “I have total faith in both of you.” An idea occurred to her, making Rarity brighten even further. “Say, now that we have horns, especially you Sunset, it should be a lot easier to find a solution. You always say you need to study magic with magic, right?” “Sure… If I remember how.” Sunset grimaced. She absently touched her spiraled horn. It was still less than an inch tall, but there was no doubt it was still growing. “We need a plan,” Twilight stated as she sobered from Rarity’s peptalk. “Rarity, can you call our friends and let them know what happened?” “Of course, dear,” Rarity replied with barely showing impatience. Her muse demanded satisfaction at the helm of a sewing machine. Much like Twilight, she needed to act if only to keep from exploding with creativity. “I’ll even speak with Mr. Thompson for you, I’ve always found him to be a reasonable man.” She flipped her hair and practiced lady-like blinking. Twilight nervously pressed her index fingers together and cowed a little. “Good idea. I hate to say it, but Thompson needs to know what’s going on. I only hope our friends aren’t having problems like this.” Rainbow Dash peered through the blinds on the tv room’s window. Her frown faded a little at seeing the plain white sedan with the driver watching the streets. He probably has two partners nearby. Her wings ruffled nervously though as Rainbow tried to refocus on Soarin. It took her a second to realize that and turned to look at her feathery appendages. Did they always used to do that? “Are you going to sulk by the window all day, or come and watch tv with me?” Soarin gave her a sultry leer, making sure it was obvious he was checking out Rainbow’s muscular body. In the privacy of her future home, Rainbow Dash drank in the attention and leaned against the wall while casting him a wry grin. Well, with Thompson’s boy’s out in force, I can relax a little. “Alright, buddy boy, you win.” With a few gentle flaps of her wings, Rainbow bounded over an armchair and landed next to Soarin’s sofa with a perfect two point landing. Rainbow mentally de-summoned her wings and spun around so she could land back-first into Soarin’s awaiting arms. At least that was the plan anyway. The moment she plopped down, pain lanced through her wings and upper back from the impact while Soarin coughed and sputtered at having feathers thrust into his mouth. “Ack, ppft, what’re you doing, Dashie?” Rainbow sat forward and pushed away from Soarin while rubbing her tender wings and ruffled feathers. “Sorry, sorry, I thought I put my wings away.” “And here I thought I was the one with brain damage,” Soarin teased showing there were no hard feelings. “Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, smart guy,” Rainbow fussed. As Soarin turned his attention to channel surfing in hopes of finding a good show to watch, Rainbow tried to desummon her wings again. It should have been easy really. To Rainbow, her magic always felt something akin to a jacket that wrapped around her when she wanted it, and felt completely absent when she didn’t. Try as she might, however, the long blue wings refused to leave. “What gives with you two?” Rainbow muttered heatedly. “Something wrong?” Soarin piped up giving her a neutral expression. “N-no, I’m fine, just making sure my feathers are okay for next time.” If Rainbow’s hesitant tone and stutter were any clue, she was lying poorly. Soarin might have called her on it, but suspected she was embarrassed and let her be. When she wasn’t being scrutinized by him anymore, Rainbow Dash scowled at her left wing. Maybe it’s like my computer sometimes. Gotta turn it off and on again. Switching gears, Rainbow filled her mind with memories of protecting her friends and standing up for Scootaloo against bullies on numerous occasions. The familiar surge of energy came, but was only a ghost of it’s former strength. In addition, the ends of Rainbow’s hair grew out as expected as the “pony tail” formed. Now to turn it off. Rainbow ‘released the jacket’ and saw the hair extensions fade away in a dim flash of light, but her wings remained in their entirety. They fidgeted again, reacting to her mounting irritation, as if mocking her efforts. Rainbow Dash repeated her efforts, then again, a third time, and a fourth for good measure, yet her wings remained steadfast against her attempts to dismiss them. Stupid wings. I love you, but you make cuddling a pain sometimes, you know that. I bet this is because of that creep from the concert. “You sure you’re okay?” Soarin called out worriedly. Rainbow turned her head back around to see him giving her a concerned grimace. “I’m fine, really, just that bozo from last night messed up my magic apparently, I can’t get my wings to go away. I think he locked my pony mode on.” “Well you look rather dashing with pony ears and wings, Dashie,” Soarin replied in a miserable attempt at wordplay to cheer her up. Thankfully for him, he was speaking with Rainbow Dash instead of Rarity because it got her to playfully punch him in the shoulder. “Laugh it up scuzz ball.” Rainbow tried to reach around to grab the back of her shirt and found the wing holes were large enough for her to pull her shirt off. However, she had never actually taken her shirt off with the wings still present. She fumbled around with them until Soarin helped her out, with more laughter at her expense all the while. “If you’re going to laugh, scoff and make fun, you can give me a wing massage since I made lunch for you.” “Ha, a fair trade.” Though he always played it off as a favor for her, Soarin actually enjoyed the activity. She flopped belly down on his lap while facing the TV, extended her wings, and puffed out her feathers as she eagerly awaited his soothing hands. Since two wings obviously required two hands, Soarin gave up channel surfing when the TV landed on the sports channel. With two years of practice under his belt, Soarin assaulted Rainbow’s wings by gently threading his fingers in between her feathers to massage the dense muscles beneath. The results were instantaneous. Rainbow felt like she was melting into the sofa and his warm lap as waves of relaxing pleasure washed over her. Only the excited chatter of the sports announcer kept her from falling asleep within minutes. Soarin spared neither her wings nor the flight muscles in her upper back. Warm simple bliss enveloped both of them in a moment they'd shared countless times over the last few years. Soarin might have turned the TV off right then and there had the screen not flashed ‘AMBER Alert’. Briefly grabbing the remote control, he turned the volume up before resuming his massage. The expected big drab font text and missing child information never came. Instead, the screen cut to a figure wearing a plain white shell of a mask with a voice modulator concealing the person’s gender and identity. However, the quality of the modulator made the voice clearly understandable. “For all of human history, magic has been the stuff of fairy tales and myths. Things you would only see on TV, movies, or read about in books. But now, people of Earth, now we have had a chance to change all that.” “Hey, Dashie, wake up, you gotta see this.” He scratched between her wing elbows to rouse her. Rainbow blearily pulled her head up to listen in. On the TV, an in-screen cut away to the Rainbooms appeared next to the masked speaker where their pony features were clearly visible. “Years ago, it was discovered that magic was real. It does indeed exist!” Her image on screen made Rainbow snap to full alert and she got up to listen carefully. “‘But what happened’,you might ask?” the speaker continued accusatorially, “The US government seized control over these heralds to the next golden age of mankind.” Rainbow Dash balled her fists and was moments from punching something. “It should be obvious to all that the US government seeks to control magic for themselves!” The picture of the Rainbooms were replaced by multiple images from around the university of several federal agents hidden around campus. To make them easier to identify, the men were highlighted by red circles. “These young women’s precious gift to the world has been hoarded for far too long. But today, that comes to an end,” the speaker stated with a flourish as he jabbed a finger at the ground. “We have found a way for all share in the gift of magic, and we will grant everyone access to it very shortly.” They moved towards the camera as if to turn it off, but stopped themselves. The mask looked one last time in the camera with one hand hovering over the switch. As for the those seven courageous women, it was regretfully necessary to take what was yours, but you need not fear us, rest easy, because your part in our goals is finished. “Until we speak again, humanity.” The AMBER alert jumped back to the sports announcer who was momentarily speechless, having seen the broadcast from an in-studio screen. Whatever he was going to say never reached Rainbow’s ears since Soarin muted the TV. “Just what the hell does he mean by that?” he asked with more disbelief than anything else. Rainbow Dash pounded the coffee table as her wings flared. She glared at the television with murder in her eyes. “I don’t care what that freak says from his moral high horse, I’m going to beat the shit out of him!” Her phone buzzed and rattled on the table. Rainbow scooped it up to find Rarity was calling her, she didn’t even wait for Rarity to say hello before half-shouting, “Rares, tell me you saw that on TV!” Rarity’s news about growing horns died in her throat at the hostility in Rainbow’s words. “I - I, well no, I haven’t watched any TV today, why? What happened?” “This whole mess just got a lot bigger…” Rainbow glared at the TV. “The guys who did this to us just hijacked the TV to tell the world what they did.” “...Oh my,” Rarity said after she recovered from shock. She cleared her throat. “I hate to pull you away from Soarin, but Thompson might want to call us all back to the house, or worse, to the agency.” Rainbow hesitated. Soarin idly scratched one of her wings to comfort her, but only made her decision that much harder. “Hey, Rares, lemme talk to Soarin for a minute.” “Sure, thing, deary,” Rarity replied with sympathetic regret as she hung up to await a text later. Rainbow looked to Soarin with a carefully constructed neutral mask. “Hey, I might get called in, and I don’t want you to be alone with that bump on the head. You wouldn’t mind me taking you to your folks' house, would you?” “I can take care of myself,” Soarin replied with more hostility than he wanted. “Greg will just give me grief all day if I do that.” “I know he’s a prick, but I also know your mom will take care of you, pleeese?” Rainbow gave him her best puppy eyes. She leaned against his chest to get her pleading eyes even closer. She by no means possessed Rarity’s charm, but she at least knew Soarin. He purposefully turned away to avoid the eyes, but when she didn’t let up for almost a minute he groaned in defeat. “Fine, but I’m taking my car. You can follow after me if you need to, but I am not staying near Greg without a way to leave.” It wasn’t exactly what she wanted, but Rainbow could sympathize. “Deal. But take it slow, you don’t want to end up like Brick did.” Soarin couldn’t hold back a cringe at the reminder of the linebacker’s car crash last year. “Alright, you win. Let me grab my keys.” “Meet me at the field’s parking lot, I left my car there,” Rainbow replied as she struggled to put her shirt back on. Soarin had to help her get it back on, flashing a teasing smile all the while. Rainbow blushed bright crimson before limply pushing him away. “Bah, here I am trying to help you and you mock me. I see how it is.” “You know you love it,” Soarin replied with a grin as he wrapped his arms around her in a loving embrace after the shirt was back in place. “Maybe,” Rainbow replied with forced neutrality. Had it been any other day, she would have taken him to the bedroom already, but between the concussion and the TV broadcast, a romp was the last thing on her mind. “We should get moving, see you there.” Rainbow pulled away and raced for the door. “See you,” he replied despondently. Soarin cursed and lightly kicked the table in exasperation for the ruined day. Might as well get my gear in order. Rainbow left with such haste though, that she didn’t catch the short growth of fur on the tips of Soarin’s ears.