//------------------------------// // Just the Beginning part 2 // Story: This is... // by WatchMeShadow //------------------------------// Pegasi Pegasi like my dear friend and ally Commander Hurricane ‘lost’ more than half their abilities. As I briefly mentioned in the earth ponies section, Pegasi magic only affects the non living things around them. What I left out about Pegasi until this point however is their ability to create. It was their equivalent to unicorn magic, like plant growth was to earth ponies. I’ll go more on that later, first I do believe I mentioned some other things. Ground Magic I’ve asked several Pegasi to describe ground magic to me, because all I knew it did, was make them look really strong when it’s just their ground magic. Anyways, they told me a couple things about it. First is that it’s both passive and temperamental in the same way air magic is. Second is that they can control it like wings except it’s one giant wing of surprises. ... Thirdly they didn’t like how it helped create the watermelon I was unkind enough to live through. ... What I’m referring to there is how special unicorns used their magic to make it as though pegasi seeded off the unicorn branch of The Celestial Counsel by making several of their signature dart attacks, in which two pegasi send a spit from below right into their opponent, and leaving them as ‘evidence.’ That’s enough about that for now. “...What am I reading? This can’t be right,” Twilight muttered to herself, as she looked at her translation so far. She knows Puddinghead to be eccentric in some capacity, but that just doesn’t sound right. This would be so much easier if he just used the proper Old Equestrian. Now she has to hunt down what a word could mean in all context, which isn’t easy because the author of ‘Old Equestrian Translation Guide’ failed to make a proper word translation index and instead focused on a proper grammar index, which scattered the words all over the freaking place. For example, the word for ‘book’ is also the word for ‘pick,’ and some others. The word's actual meaning depends on some words, symbols, or sometimes both before or after it. Well the ‘clever’ author of ‘Old Equestrian Translation Guide’ put all those words/symbols in index and then paired them with the words as opposed to the words then the related symbols, which really made the book much larger than it has any right being. At least, Twilight is slowly but surely becoming more familiar with what a word could mean in all context, as she had no choice but to do so. She sighed, got up and went for a cup of coffee, this was gonna be anything but fun. She opened the kitchen door to Spike, looking at her sheepishly wearing a dirty apron, standing next to a fresh bucket of soapy water with a wet sponge in hand. She completely forgot about that, fortunately, the clean half of the kitchen included the stove. She gave Spike a reassuring smile and nod, well she hopes it was reassuring. With her telekinesis she filled up her teakettle, placed it on the stovetop, turned it on, got out a teacup, some ground coffee and filters then swiftly left the kitchen. If she didn’t hear the high whistle of the teakettle when it was done, then she was sure Spike would be kind enough to get it for her. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ “Not my cumulus,” Scootaloo said, as she took out a piece of plastic shaped like a cloud from a board and replaced it with two red dots. She only had one pegasus on the board and there were plenty of red dots revealing to her that her chances of survival were slim. Directly in front of her on a wheelchair sat her sister Rainbow Dash, who’s currently recovering from magic depletion. “B5,” Rainbow said, unknowingly missing Scootaloos last piece by one number. After two years of lying, Scootaloo was able to keep calm and not reveal in any capacity how relieved she was, “Miss,” now it was her turn to strike back. Rainbow still had a pegasus and cumulus on the field, and she’s had her eye on a clear spot surrounded by red dots, “D4.” Rainbow raised up her hooves in fake frustration, smiling, “ahh, you got my pegasus.” Rainbow hasn’t had this much fun with this game in a while. Scootaloo smiled, victory is hers if she can just guess which of the few remaining clear spots had that cumulus, “I’m about to win this,” she said confidently, “A3.” “Miss,” Rainbow responded back, a sadistically playful smile on her lips, “Well, well, well it seems that the tables have turned! B,” Rainbow said stopping briefly, Scootaloo might be good at lying, but panic made her forget about that, and gave Rainbow an important signal that she was at least on the right track, “3,” she finished. “Miss,” Scootaloo said calmly, quickly recovering. Deciding to forgo any banter until she actually won, she noticed a line of three empty spots all by their lonesome, “D2,” she said shooting at the middle. Rainbows smile disappeared, “you got one hit on my cumulus.” Scootaloo pumped her hoof in the air, “you’re going down.” “Oh yeah?” Rainbow smiled wickedly, “Well is it C2 or E2? You better choose carefully.” Scootaloo knew that smile, she had to get this right, “C… no, E… ehh.” “It’s okay take all the time you need. You have a chance to win this for once ahahaha,” Rainbow mocked. “C2?” Scootaloo questioned, after having been unable to decide. “Aww, so close but no dice. Not that I’m complaining though. I get to remain the champ! B4,” Rainbow said, confident in her gut instincts. “You got my pegasus,” Scootaloo said defeatedly and sighed, “and I was so close that time to.” Rainbow got up from her wheelchair and walked around to Scootaloo and gently embraced her with a wing, “Hey sis, you’re getting better at it. Heck, that was the closest I ever came to losing, and I’ve had some close games,” she finished, roughing Scootaloos already shaggy hair. Scootaloo giggled, “I already won, because I have the coolest big sister in the whole world,” Scootaloo said leaning into a proud Rainbow. Scootaloo has been through an emotional rollercoaster for the last week. The perfect foalhood she spent two years building began crumbling to pieces before her eyes. It wasn’t long ago, Scootaloo couldn’t and wouldn’t call Rainbow her sister, though she still felt it and badly wanted to believe it. So badly in fact, that when Rainbow confronted her about it, saying they were basically just good friends, she cried. Once alone of course. Then she tried to fly. She still doesn’t know what happened, but she’s terrified of her wings now, which didn’t help her out when she thought about Rainbow, which was hard to not do. She felt like if she wasn’t wanted by Rainbow before, then why would Rainbow want to be her sister now that she’s scared of her own wings? She felt her lowest when she thought she was gonna lose Sweetie. She’s been lying to her friends, and to not be able to tell them the truth, it was just too much. Then everything changed in a few days. Rainbow became her sister, though she had some reservations until she knew it to be true. Applebloom saved Sweetie, and then they both forgave her for lying to them since she knew them. She’s never been more happy in her young life. Rainbow used to think she’d have to wait until she found a special somepony before she could have anything resembling an actual family. Scootaloo proved her wrong though, and revealed just how much pain Rainbow had bottled up when it came to that issue. Instead of opening that bottle, Scootaloo took it and threw it in a deep chasm, never to be seen again. Scootaloo is her little sister, and she now has a family. She was an orphan growing up, and only got adopted once. It wasn’t the best experience, suddenly having ‘parents’ push her to accomplish another sonic rainboom to the point beyond exhaustion. She’s actually recovering from that state right now, but for far better reasons. It was only days ago that Scootaloo cried her heart out to her, because one of Scootaloos best friends Sweetie was injured severely. She couldn’t stand to see Scootaloo like that, after all the support she’s received and time they spent together, it just broke her heart. She helped out the only way she could, and that was to get blood from Trottingham for Sweetie as fast as possible. She did two sonic rainbooms to accomplish this. It completely wiped her out and turned out to be unnecessary, but she’d do it again for Scootaloo. She loves her friends like they’re family, it’s probably why she became the element of loyalty, but she never could truly consider them family even if she’d treat them as such. Playing board games with Scootaloo while recovering has been fun. It brought back nostalgic memories of her former best friend Gilda. It was actually making her miss the griffon. They use to play Cloud Siege in flight camp. ‘She lost every game,’ Rainbow smirked at her own wandering thoughts, ‘hah, and that tantrum was legendary.’ She laughed so much during Gildas rant that she thought she’d die laughing, and Gilda not even once tried to stop her. Now that she thinks about it Gilda might have kept getting more creative with her words because of that. This made Rainbow feel even worse about the way things fell apart between them. It was something she should've handled differently, but she was just so angry at the time. Gilda was never that bad, and now that she looks back on it, she has regrets. Her legs were feeling weak so she detached from Scootaloo and went back to her wheelchair. Fortunately, just in time for there to be a knock on the door, they both don’t want to look uncool and sappy. They were currently residing in the Cakes guest room. Rainbow is currently unable to even fly to her cloud home. She lied for Scootaloo and said they were planning a sleepover before she went and got herself wiped out. They believed her with some help from Scootaloo, and were gracious enough to let Scootaloo stay as well. She did this the same day she learned Scootaloo had no true home to go home to. There was no way Rainbow was gonna let her little sister sleep another night alone in that clubhouse if she could help it. “It’s open,” she said while resetting her side of the game. The door swung open and Pinkie walked in, “So how’s it going?” Not even pausing for their answer, “Good, good. I have a noble guest for our honorable guest, let me present to you Sir Spike,” she said bowing and gesturing to her side for the baby dragon to walk in. Spike walked in dignantly, as opposed to indignantly, then ruined his act, “Hey Rainbow, hey Scootaloo,” waving a scaly hand, “Um, Twilight needs to tell you what that journal said about pegasi,” he said to Scootaloo. This actually reminded Rainbow of something she wanted to talk to Scootaloo about. She’s been putting it off for too long now, “Alright Spike we’ll be there, you can go on ahead we gotta clean this mess up first,” she answered before Scootaloo could get a word. “Aww that’s okay,” said Pinkie, “I can clean this up for you two.” “No no, it’s okay Pinkie. We got it,” Rainbow responded to Pinkie. “Okay, Dokey, Lokey,” Pinkie said happily and left them with Spike. Rainbow then brought her attention back to Spike, “We’ll be at the library soon enough Spike,” if it didn’t take so much out of her right now she would have been ushering Spike out and closing the door on him. Fortunately for her, Spike had no problems returning to Twilight with their word of showing up, and left. After waiting a little bit Rainbow brought her attention back to Scootaloo who was looking at her questioningly, “Sis,” Rainbow hoped that’d ease any concern Scootaloo might have, “we need to talk on the way to Twilights and I can’t have Spike listening in.” Scootaloo was a little worried, but they’re sisters now, “Okay.” They, or rather mostly Scootaloo, cleaned up the mess, while they waited, which wasn’t that hard. Once Rainbow felt Spike was back to the library they took their leave. Getting down the stairs of Sugarcube Corner was a hassle, but not one they haven't conquered before. Soon they were outside, Scootaloo wheeling Rainbow to their destination. A quick glance in every direction revealed to Rainbow that the streets and skies were pretty empty right now, perfect, “Alright squirt, so we’re going to have to tell Twilight about your situation…” Rainbow thought a little, “I’m asking you to let me handle it for now though, I won’t tell her anything, I just need to ask her about ugh, laws. I won’t let anypony take you away, it’s obvious to me you’ve made a home here, and great friends...,” Rainbow sucked in her breath for what she was about to say next, “and a family with me,” she said finally, and the wheelchair stopped briefly. Before they began moving again. If Rainbow had looked back she would have seen Scootaloo rubbing her eyes while wearing a giant smile. “It’s okay big sis, I trust you. Just, I want to be the one to tell her, she’s helped me out more than she knows,” Scootaloo answered. “Hey,” Rainbow said faking offence, “she won’t suspect a thing. I got a plan.”. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ One peaceful walk, or ride in the case of Rainbow, later and they were entering the library. Twilight was pacing back and forth with nothing else to do until she can inform Scootaloo of her discoveries. She was at the door the second it started opening, and subsequently got out of their way so they had room to move in. “Hey Twilight,” Rainbow said as Scootaloo pushed her further inside. “How’s it going Rainbow?” Twilight asked referring to Rainbow current inability to do pretty much anything. “I miss the sky,” Rainbow answered spying Scootaloo walking to her side, “but it’s not all bad,” she said, giving Scootaloo a pat on the head. “So what did the journal say about my wings?” Scootaloo asked which unintentionally brought up her fear, “I-I mean pegasi?” Scootaloo stuttered. Rainbow noticing the change in Scootaloos tone placed a hoof on her withers, calming her down. “Well it wasn’t easy finding the right words in translation. As some of them are interchangeable, and are plausible but I…” Twilight paused as she noticed the bored, and ‘just get on with expressions’ they were giving her, “Right, ahem, anyways Scootaloo I’m going to start with what Puddinghead referred to as ‘ground magic,’ or Geomancy as it’s actually called. According to him it basically gives you the ability to control the earth around you. For example, that spike that impal…” Twilight sighed, why does she need to keep bringing up that to them, “The spike that impaled the manticores paw during the incident was probable your doing, even if you don’t remember it,” She watched as Scootaloo looked down at her forelegs then shrugged, “anyways,” she continued, “he also mentioned you can probable burrow under the earth like a diamond dog. We’ve already seen you pick up heavy objects for a filly like they weighed nothing. Another thing pegasi could apparently do is enchant things. Apparently these enchants had various useful effects on objects. From enhancing one's own ability, to strengthening an object beyond its natural strength-” Twilight would have kept going but Rainbow interrupted, “Wait, slow down there. Are you saying pegasi use to be able to enchant things like unicorns can?” “Yes and no…” Twilight paused to gather her thoughts and look at some notes, “If what Puddinghead describes is accurate, then Pegasi enchants were much more infused and affected the actual object of enchantment. Unicorn enchants are more like magic surrounding an object giving it the appearance of certain qualities, when it’s just the enchantment doing the work. For example, if I have dull scissors and I enchanted them to cut cardboard it would be the enchantment that cut the cardboard and the scissors were just the catalyst,” “Wait, so you mean I could tape to sticks together to look like scissors, have you enchant them and-” “Let me stop you right there,” Twilight said, before Rainbow could finish her thought, “No, that wouldn’t work. Well, I guess it technically could, but that’s not the point. Unicorn enchants follow a certain kind of logic, this has been well documented throughout centuries of research. The object that’s being enchanted needs to already possess a similar quality that the enchant is trying to affect or else it gets complicated and usually requires several unicorns to accomplish.” “Yesh, Twilight you could have stopped at ‘wouldn’t work,’ and I’d be okay with that,” Rainbow said making Twilight fluster briefly. “Right… where was I? Oh yeah, Pegasi enchants, according to Puddinghead, are different in that they actually change the qualities of the object. The example he gave is iron cutting gold like butter. Hah, that was was a fun translation… Did you know the word for gold in old equestrian is also the word for butter? Because I sure wish I didn’t, Ahahaha…” Twilight stopped and muttered something to herself, “Sorry about that, I need another trip the spa once I’m done with the unicorn section of this, this...” Twilight breathed in heavily, closing her eyes, “Moving on,” she said more so to herself, “Anyways, Unfortunately, they had symbols for those enchants and he didn’t provide any that we could test out.” “Did it say anything else about my wings?” Scootaloo asked, desperate to learn anything about what she considered her near death experience. She grew up living with the knowledge that she’d never be able to fly. She for the most part accepted this fact. Last week, soon after Rainbow confronted her, she felt the need to try and fly. She had to prove those ponies wrong, prove to herself that she wasn’t a burden. She was expecting to fail spectacularly. She was just giving herself another reason to cry, if she was being honest. Instead of failing, the opposite happened to the extreme, and she became absolutely terrified of her own wings. She made Twilight pinkie promise her that she would keep her fears a secret, before she even confided them to her. Thinking of which, she noticed Twilight looking at Rainbow nervously, “It’s okay Twilight. I already told Rainbow about it.” “It’s true. Once I’m recovered we’ll kick that fear to the curve,” Rainbow said with confidence, which made Scootaloo smile a little. Twilight calmed down, “Actually it did, though not much was different from what is already known about Pegasi. He did mention that they had much greater control of the air around them beyond mere clouds,” with that statement Twilight remembered how they described the manticore's incapacitation. It got blown away, “say Scootaloo, I want to test something real quick, I want you to try and blow me away with your hoof by using air.” “What? You mean like pretend?” Scootaloo questioned. “Yes, but I want you to actually try and do it, like you mean it,” Twilight answered. Scootaloo brought up a hoof cocked it back, “Woah, woah, woah,” Rainbow said, stopping Scootaloo in her tracks, “If you’re gonna do that then you have to do it right sis, use both hooves,” Rainbow demonstrated by bringing both her forehooves to her chest then thrusting them out, “Oww, that hurt,” she smiled sheepishly bringing her forehooves back to a resting position on the wheelchair. “You alright Rainbow?” Twilight asked concern in her voice. “Yeah, I’m fine. Now do just as I shown you,” Rainbow answered. “Well do,” Scootaloo answered smiling, at her sister's antics. She just knew she was gonna look silly, and uncool. She hasn’t played pretend in so long, but Rainbow seemed to have no problem with it, and she did have a point, if you’re gonna do it you might aswell do it right. Scootaloo reared up, brought her hooves to her chest, then imagined blowing Twilight away with a strong gust of wind that’d somehow come out of her hooves, then thrusted them out, while trying to actually make it happen. Air around her suddenly became alive, violently, books in the library where thrown about as a wild wind manifested. Twilight was indeed thrown into the wall behind her, making a loud bang noise while Rainbow was blown backwards unable to stop the wheels while the wind was at it’s strongest. Rainbow slowed to a stopped soon after. Scootaloo was stunned into stillness not moving, as the wind died down, staring at Twilight who was now on the ground rubbing her head, as she recovered from her sudden appointment with the wall behind her. Spike who heard a loud thumping noise quickly ran out of the kitchen, where he was preparing meals for Twilight, Scootaloo, Rainbow, and himself. His eyes met books littering the place, and was instantly filled with dread, before he saw Twilight on the ground rubbing her head, now he’s worried. He ran over to her and helped her up, “Twilight are you alright?” He asked. “Yeah, I’m fine Spike, that was quite the surprise,” Twilight answered, as she got up. “How many claws am I holding up,” Spike asked as he holded out two claws, to him this seemed like a good question, considering the impact in the wall behind Twilight. “Two,” Twilight answered as she looked to Scootaloo who’s still stunned, and Rainbow who just wheeled back to Scootaloo's side. “That was so awesome!” Rainbow squealed, bringing her hooves to her face before patting Scootaloo on the back. That got Scootaloo back to reality blinking a few times, “Twilight! Please tell me you’re okay,” “I’m fine,” Twilight answered, “heh, I guess, I did ask for that didn’t I?” Twilight joked, to a relieved Scootaloo, unamused Spike who muttered something, and a amused Rainbow. “Yeah, you kinda did,” Rainbow answered. “So I guess we just confirmed what Puddinghead…” Twilight paused, before excitedly saying “I think I now know what happened to cause you to fly so high in the air,” looking at Scootaloo whose wicked smile was quickly replaced with a frown, “It seems you’re much like Sweetie, in that you have much more power than you can control without proper training,” she said much more calmer, “Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait until Rainbow recovers until we can begin flying lessons as I don’t trust anypony else for the job, given your situation,” Twilight was avoiding bringing up Scootaloo's fear as Spike was there now, “Anyways, that’s all he had to say about pegasi pertaining to their abilities at least. Spike is the food almost done?” “Yeah, I was actually putting on the finishing touches before whatever just happened,” Spike answered, looking around the library now a mess. Noticing Spike distress at the state of the library, “It’s okay Spike I’ll clean the library. I could use a break from the journal anyways, and this is a good enough excuse for me… Rainbow and Scootaloo I hope you don’t mind but Spike offered to make us all food-” “Hey it’s no problem, we haven't eaten in awhile, Thanks Spike,” Rainbow said. Spike responded by leaving to retrieve the food, “No problem, when I get back I want to know what just happened.” When he came back they had a nice meal. Soon Rainbow and Scootaloo left back for the Sugar Cube Corner. Scootaloo’s mind raced with possibilities, she might just take a page out of Appleblooms book. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Manehatten a large city bustling with activity from tourist, to business ponies, to cart vendors, street performers, to artist, and the occasional doom sayers. Towering buildings that’d make anypony feel small by comparison blocked out the sky, unless one were to look straight up. Taxi carriages clogged the streets during rush hour, Pegasi filled the skies in their own well regulated chaos for those below to watch, and be envious of, as they reach their destination four times faster than the crowded streets of the carriages would allow. One such tall building is a hotel with a spectacular view the city itself and the Mare of Liberty, it’s The Grand Piano Inn. Its overpriced rooms were justified by the view they provide, while the service and and in-house chefs were pretty good, the rooms themselves were kind of outdated. The lobby area was large and inviting, with a well payed pianist providing an ambient almost elevator like music for guest to enjoy. As stated before, their rooms were overpriced and the suite at the very top is where they made most their income. As it provided a three sixty view of everything around while also maintaining privacy with specialized windows. Large companies or nobles would often rent out the suite as a business trip or for vacation respectively. The receptionist in the hotel were just about to have a shift change, “Alright, Station I’m here you can head on home now,” said a mare wearing a hotel suit with a keyboard tie, to a stallion equipped with the same get-up. The stallion looked at her suspiciously, “Yeah,” resentment clearly in his voice, “I’m sure you’d like that. You’re a little early… I’m gonna go tell our manager, I have something I need to do today anyways,” he said before heading off. She was a little confused about the way he acted just then, he’s usually happy when she shows up early. After a little bit, a slightly dulled bright yellow mare with a dulled off bright orange mane walked in the front door. She’s not sure why but she was drawn to her and the sapphire eyes that watched her determinedly. The mare seemed so focused on her that she failed to notice the tons of luggage being pushed by the receptionist co-worker. She barely got out of the way, avoiding a mess of suitcases, but she instead bumped into two guest that were having a happy conversation. The mare ignored them and scolded her co-worker who apologized profusely, looked around, then continued her march to the lobby desk. “How may I help you,” the receptionist asked as the mare finally made it to the counter, peaceful piano music playing all the while. “You certainly can, I’m Charity Well and I’m here for my suite reservation,” the mare said with a slightly irritated voice. The receptionist quickly retrieved the lone paper placed in a locked drawer for special guest that rent out the suite, though not quick enough, “If you could move it along. It’s been a rough day and your first impressions don’t leave me wanting.” The receptionist laughed nervously, “Sorry for the inconvenience,” the paper described her as unicorn with different coat and mane colors than what she sees before her. “Um, I think I might have misheard you. Did you say suite reservation, or sweet reservation?” “Are you deaf my dear? I said suite, as in the best room you’ve got. Let me guess,” the mare's eyes changed briefly, and suddenly the receptionist trusted this mare with her life, “that paper you’re holding says I’m a earth pony other such nonsense,” the receptionist nodded, “but my name is right, right?” the receptionist nodded again, the name on the paper was in fact Charity Well, “Well it wasn’t too long ago I had to fire a servant as he could never get things right, I forgotten that I had him make the reservations so I never sended any corrections that clearly were needed, now if you could show me to my room.” The receptionist knew she should go get the manager or even the boss to handle a situation like this, but Charity’s story made sense to her, she didn’t need to bother them with this discrepancy. She trusted this mares word, “Alright then, if you’ll follow me we’ll get you settled in.” ‘Charity Well’ smirked in victory. It would have been impossible to do what she just did if it wasn’t for the power of her new bracelet. It would have taken much more time, and effort to get a suite room in a hotel like this, well unless one was a stuck-up noble or over valued business pony. All she had to do was get the name of the pony that had the room reserved from the previous receptionist before shift change. The power, it was addictive, she felt like she could do so many things. She just knew she was gonna go far with the ‘The Believers Bracelet.’ The doors to the elevator closed, leaving her in the dark about what was just about to transpire in the lobby with the two ponies she had bumped into previously. Two suited stallions were looking at each other suspiciously in The Grand Piano Inn’s lobby. They knew each other since elementary school, and would know if the other has done something regretful or suspects the other of doing something regretful. This was the case as the both looked at each other in suspicion, arguments past but more importantly the emotions they rought came to the forefront of their mind, even though they were having a great conversation mere moments ago. “What’s wrong?” one asked. ‘How dare he assume something is wrong,’ the other thought as strong negative emotions surged through him, “Nothing!” the other hissed angrily, and turned his head “it’s not like I have butter hooves,” the other said under his breath, just loud enough for the other to hear on purpose, as he wore a wicked smirk. ‘Butter Hooves’ heard this ofcourse and replied in kind, though there was nothing kind about it, “Real creative there Peanut Pony,” he spat, referring to an of incident that lead to pretty much a whole class to call the other pony that mercilessly. ‘Peanut Pony’ felt even more betrayed; that was something he had to get counseling for, and having his best friend call him that, it cut deep, and enraged him. He attacked ‘Butter Hooves,’ in blind anger, and soon they were on the ground in a tussle, as they rolled around trying to tear each other apart. The music in the lobby changed as the talented pianist began to play a more hostile and suspenseful music to fit the lobbies mood. Two hotel guards were quick to separate and remove them from the hotel and ordered them to walk in separate directions. Before they did they yelled ‘You hit like a filly,” and “Oh yeah? Well you are a filly,” respectively before the guards told them to shut up and start walking again. They wandered aimlessly. Both avoided and scowled at anypony they passed, as they muttered under their breath.