The Minuet

by Noble Phantasm

Mind of the Mage

Chapter 8: Mind of the Mage

Time and Space Await…

-Even the deepest hearts have feeling and the lightest hearts have their deeper corners. In the hailstorm, are your castle walls strong enough?

“We both know you don’t belong here.” A voice. Colgate stirred. “Why, you might as well not even be in Equestria.” Colgate forced her eyelids open and was met with another pair their deviance apparent. She leapt back and stumbling, fell through what she had thought was solid stone and soil. Yet, through it she went into a gaping pit of blackness not even a shred of wind to cushion her decent. Despite this, she landed with ease on a surface in the darkness that clinked like the glass of fine china against her hooves. Something zipped by her like a dart, a wild laughter following in its tailwind.

“It’s raining, it’s pouring, Clocktail is snoring! She went to bed, fell on her head, and never woke up in the morning!” The voice trailed off into whatever distance there was in the emptiness. An enormous version of Discord appeared before Colgate looming over her, a satisfied grin only emphasizing the tooth that made Colgate hate him more than really anything else about him.

“Your friends don’t even trust you,” He said. Three more versions of him appeared around, all the same giant size staring down at her like she was an ant trapped in a spider web.

“What are you talking about?” Colgate asked. It was all too much for her to take in this quickly. She didn’t even know where she was. Something zipped by her again, this time smacking her across the face with a hoof. Colgate stumbled back, slightly dazed. Whatever it was, it was far too fast to predict. The rhyme from before suggested Screwball and with four Discords laughing at her from above, her presence was more than likely.

“You know what I mean.”

“I-” Suddenly the whole image that was in front of her cracked like it had all been made of glass. Everything stopped, it was broken. All of it, the blackness, Discord, were funneled like water being sucked into a vacuum to a point like a whirlpool. The image was like paint being washed down a drain, until everything around her became white.

Colgate’s head shot up with a gasp. She was panting and found herself right where she had gone to sleep, the wild careening stars in the sky replaced by an unnecessarily bright sun. Or at least it seemed so to her. Colgate squinted against the light, seeing the shape of a pony in front of her, but unable to make out who it was before her eyes adjusted.

“L…Luna?” Colgate paused drowsily. It was comfortably warm where she was sitting for some reason. Luna looked down at her with misty eyes and a sour look.

“That was quite the dream you were having,” She said.

“What?” Colgate struggled to remember what happened. Dreams were never something she was very good at recalling. This one came back to her rather quickly though as she pushed the sleep out of her head bit by bit. “You…You saw that?”

“I stopped it.”

“You can…do that?”

“You know in some regards I’m like you. I don’t really understand why I can do certain magic. Besides, it didn’t look like you were having fun.”

“Th-thanks,” Colgate rubbed her eyes.

“Nah,” Luna brushed it off. “I actually came here looking for Ruya and then I found you too, grinding your teeth in your sleep.”

“Me…too?” Colgate repeated. She looked behind to find Ruya sprawled across her back sleeping peacefully. That’s why she had felt so comfortably warm. She must have come back after Colgate had fallen asleep which she had no idea how long ago that had been. “Oh…”

“She’s taken a strange liking to you.”

“I don’t know why.”

“Nobody knows why with her,” Luna gave a slight laugh. “You know last night she came and woke us up all excited about how she had shown you the lights and how pretty they were. Me and Tia just had to agree with her.”

“I’m not even sure what she showed me.” It was quiet for a few moments. Luna seemed to be mulling over something she wanted to say, but had been avoiding because she didn’t know how to say it. She shifted uncomfortably which in turn made Colgate uncomfortable as well.

“Listen…” Luna started. “I…well…I’m.” She sighed. “I’m sorry I haven’t trusted you…”

“What?” Colgate was surprised to hear Luna say this. All this time she had thought Luna had been entirely justified in her mistrust considering she had appeared in a cave with no more purpose than a rock in a stream. Luna gave a grumble like there was someone forcing her to apologize the way she was.

“And I…” She flustered. “I won’t call you Clocktail anymore…” She looked away. Colgate smiled, suppressing a laugh. Luna tripped over her words angrily.

“H-hey! I-I’m trying to be…never mind.”

“Celestia put you up to this didn’t she?” Colgate knew Luna would never apologize so directly like this unless it was her sister’s idea. Celestia had a way of softening Luna’s somewhat rougher personality when she needed to.

“That’s not important,” Luna replied. “Look, she wanted me to tell you that we were going to try and get those whatever they were thingies under Canterlot and that she wanted you to come with us if it was possible.”

“Really?” Celestia actually wanted her to come along?

“Yes really.” Colgate was surprised. Maybe she had been viewing this back in time thing the wrong way. This whole time she had been so focused on little more than getting back to where she had come from that she had forgotten to really try to be friends with any pony. She felt guilty now for always asking people she met to help her with a way back, only valuing them for their knowledge. She had done it to Celestia, Luna and also to Sombra. She would have done so to Ruya as well if the little filly hadn’t seen through everything she was trying to hide.

“Thank you Luna,” Colgate said sincerely. Luna seemed angered by this, giving a huff. It was perhaps more sappy of a conversation that she would have liked it to be.

“Don’t make me take it back,” She said. “You know, Celestia made me realize that we wouldn’t have made it this far without you…so…I should be…rrrrrg! I should be thanking you okay!” Colgate’s guilt hit her again. She knew Luna’s last statement to be false. If she hadn’t been here, in this time, she knew exactly what would have happened. Luna and Celestia would have used the elements of harmony to stop Discord and they would have become princesses and rulers of Equestria. It was only because of her that, that future had been compromised. Luna had every unknowing right to hate her for what she had done and yet here she was thanking her for it. Knowing this was painful, but not being able to say anything about it was worse. Luna was being as honest as she could with her and Colgate was a walking lie.

“You don’t have to-” Colgate started.

“No!” Luna cut her off. “Shut up! No more of this. I hate mushy talk. Accept it! It’s my apology, now take it and like it.” Colgate clammed up. This was more like the Luna she knew and Colgate smiled at the sheer forcefulness of her confession.

“Alright then thank you Luna.” Colgate said in acceptance.

“No No I-” Luna turned in an angry circle. “Rrrr…Hey!” she turned to Ruya who had seemingly slept through their talk with the obliviousness of an inanimate object. “Hey sleepy face. Wake up. We’re going to that big cave you were talking about.” Ruya raised her head still draped over Colgate’s back like a stubborn cat. She looked to her and then to Luna, twice. She smiled, the sleep vanishing from her eyes in an instant.

“Oo! Oo!” She exclaimed fully awake. “Are we bonding?” Luna gave another irritated growl.

“This is your fault,” Luna said squinting at Ruya.

“Luna’s sis made her apologize,” Ruya giggled.

“It was your idea!?”

“Ruya did nothing of the sort,” She said. “It is Luna’s own fault for being afraid of a little pony like Minuette.” Called little by the filly, Colgate thought and she was momentarily stunned to actually see Luna blush.

“Wh- I wasn’t-” Luna stopped. “No. No no no. We’re going. I should just leave you behind.” By “you” Colgate assumed she meant Ruya, but of course Ruya was the last pony one could try to leave behind and she knew it.

“You shouldn’t have told Ruya where you were going,” She said. Luna turned to leave.

“Like you wouldn’t have known anyway,” Luna frowned. Ruya grinned back at her and Luna gave a sigh. “Come on.” She sulked off beckoning them to follow her to wherever it was they were going. Colgate was curious to see just where the elements had been buried before anypony knew about them even if she ended up not being able to enter the cavern. Although she had, had enough of caves after escaping the one she had arrived in. Colgate stood up and Ruya remained pasted to her back like she had attached herself to Colgate. The filly turned herself forward and clung to Colgate’s neck with one hoof and pointed forward like she was telling her to charge with the other.

“To the gates of Tartarus!” Ruya exclaimed.

“Uhh…” Colgate hesitated.

“Just follow Luna,” Ruya whispered as she hunkered down excitedly in Colgate’s mane with a smirk.

“Alright,” Colgate chuckled. She trailed after Luna through the stone streets with the filly on her back. As strange as Ruya was, in some ways, she was still a child playful in her ways. She bobbed up and down, her belly against Colgate’s back as she trotted along behind Luna, a determined look on her face like she was on a mission, riding her steed to the forefront of a battle. The Canterlot of the old world was a much wilder place Colgate realized. The Canterlot of her own time was a city that dominated the mountainside, its ivory towers refined and civil whereas this Canterlot was hard stone, practically fused with the forest around it an untamed feat of architecture. The foliage was part of it, the trees providing the walls extra support rather than splitting them apart and ivy spinning around structures as if it were conscious of preserving the fortress’s structural integrity. Luna led them through several large and smaller streets, the heads of ponies peaking out of windows to watch them as they passed some even coming out to see where they were going. By the time they made it to where Luna had intended to lead just Colgate and Ruya, she had acquired seven extra followers.

They came to a clearing in the castle structure and the trees, where the stone floor turned into a gaping dirt hole that led in a steadily steeping slope that plunged into wall of darkness as soon as the light above could reach no further into it. There was quite a crowd, something, Colgate realized, that the sisters seemed to attract without really trying. Colgate felt Ruya shift as she climbed up onto her, placing her two front hooves on her head to look over her for a better view, keeping the rear two balanced on Colgate’s back. Luna was greeted by Celestia and Sombra who were already there apparently awaiting their arrival.

“You brought them,” Celestia stated. “I trust it went well.” Luna puffed her cheeks with a huff and looked away from her sister with a pouting expression.

“She’s such a darling when she’s sorry,” Ruya filled in for Luna.

“I see,” Celestia chuckled. “Well then, here we are. It’s quite something don’t you think? To think they did all this while we were gone.”

“We’ve been busy,” Sombra admitted. “What you don’t see is that we had to take down an entire tower just to dig here. Hm.” He laughed. “And only to find out we couldn’t get in.

“There’s so much water here,” Ruya said. “It’s so clear, but there’s so much I can’t see past it.”

“What does she mean?” Colgate asked. Luna rolled her eyes.

“She’s probably talking about how dense magic energy is here,” Sombra explained turning to his niece. “Right?” Ruya nodded.

“Yup,” She confirmed. “The water.”

“Sure…That will have to do,” Sombra accepted. “Are you two ready to try this?” Celestia and Luna gave affirmative nods.

“Will you be coming with us Minuette?” Celestia asked. Normally she might want to stay behind, learn more magic, but maybe trying to be friends with this younger Celestia wasn’t such a bad thing. She had probably already done terrible things to everypony’s future. Making a friend was probably one of the least hurtful things she could do.

“I’ll try,” Colgate replied. Of course, there was no guarantee that she would even be able to enter the cave or that the sisters would be able to either.

“Don’t make any plans,” Luna said. “We might end up going nowhere.”

“Oh…” Ruya seemed disappointed. “You’re all going to leave me behind?”

“Ruya,” Sombra spoke. “Even if you could enter the cave I wouldn’t allow it. There’s far too much magic floating around down there and I know how you can get. You’d fry your brain.”

“Besides,” Luna commented. “What if Minuette is the only one that can enter?”

“I doubt that would happen,” Colgate said.

“You’re weird enough for it.” Colgate wasn’t sure if that was a compliment or not. Perhaps it was Luna’s strange way of doing so.

“Even so,” Celestia said to her. “Glad to know you’re with us.” Colgate smiled even though hers didn’t compare to Celestia’s beaming radiance. With her confidence, it didn’t seem like it was possible for them to fail at this.

“Alright,” Sombra affirmed. “Down you go then,” he told Ruya lifting her off Colgate with his magic. He set her on the ground next to her and the filly looked up at Colgate with a smile.

“Come back quick so we can play more,” She said. Colgate nodded confidently amping up Ruya’s enthusiasm which in turn made Sombra nervous.

“This should be fun to watch,” A voice behind her said.

“What?” Colgate turned around to see Discord floating in the air, nonchalantly munching on popcorn as he lounged in amusement.

“You seem surprised,” He said. “Go on, I want to see how this plays out.” Colgate stood on edge. Was no pony else seeing this? She looked to Luna and Celestia who were staring at her puzzlingly after she had jerked around at the sound of Discord’s voice. Yet, they didn’t seem to notice him. No one did. Except for her.

“What’s going on…” Colgate said tentatively. “How are you doing this?” The crowd around them began to murmur. Colgate didn’t like it. It was an unnecessary source of noise.

“Doing what?” Discord asked innocently. “I’m simply enjoying my entertainment.”

“Minuette…” Luna asked. “Who are you talking to?”

“So…you don’t see…him?” Colgate asked slowly. Things had certainly gone from hopeful to a dreadful version of embarrassing quickly. They were going to think she was crazy.

“See who?” Celestia asked.

“Hmmm,” Ruya tilted her head. “Dentist pony is acting weird. I see she doesn’t like who is talking to her.”

“What?” Luna huffed. “Is that me?” Suddenly it seemed like Luna’s apology had done more damage than good. Colgate panicked. She shouldn’t have said anything. Discord’s mere presence was flipping everything on its head.

“Oo!” Discord seemed delighted. “Good one. That was artful. Please, thank that little crystal pony would you. She deserves to be praised for such wondrous ambiguity.” No no no no, Colgate’s mind raced.

“It’s not you Luna,” She tried to assure her. “You really can’t…” She trailed off. “It’s nothing…nothing…” Sombra raised an eyebrow as Colgate turned away from Discord trying her best to pretend she hadn’t seen him. Was she going crazy? All this time in the wrong place had her seeing things, was that it? She shook her head several times trying to clear it.

“Once again,” Sombra said. “Are we all ready?” Colgate nodded.

“Are you alright?” Celestia asked her.

“I’m fine,” Colgate straightened up and put on a brave face. There was certainly something strange about her being the only one able to see Discord. Even Ruya seemed to only half catch on, which worried her more.

“Don’t you worry,” Discord said. “I’ll be here, even when I’m not.” Colgate looked back. He was gone. She forced her head back forward banishing the thought of his appearance. He wasn’t there, she told herself several times in her head. Maybe if she reiterated it enough she might believe herself.

“Weirdo,” Luna said. Colgate scolded herself inwardly over and over again for ever turning around in the first place. But what should she have done? Ignored the fact that she thought Discord was right there in the Everfree with them? This was too strange for her to figure out. The faster they got to the elements the better, she thought, so she trudged on.

The three ponies approached the entrance, Colgate to right of the two alicorns with Celestia between her and Luna. Sombra and Ruya watched from the side in front of a whole crowd of onlookers who had hushed in anticipation of what was about to happen. Celestia turned and nodded to both Luna and Colgate and they wordlessly took their first steps toward the dark cavern. As they met the slope that led underground, Celestia’s horn lit up in expectation of the approaching blackness as she moved closer to her sister. Colgate could feel the air thicken. Each step made the space around her feel heavier and her heart thumped into her throat, her vision tightening. The two sisters seemed unfazed while Colgate’s breathing became labored like they were walking into a miasma that filled the cavern, poisonous to anypony who didn’t know their magic. Colgate stumbled and Celestia turned to her with concern.

“Are you okay?” She asked. Her voice was muffled. Colgate had to fight through this. Her knees trembled as she tried to wave Celestia away. Suddenly they just gave out and with a blinding flash, Colgate found herself at the top of the slope again flat on her belly, but her senses returned to her. Celestia and Luna stared back at her in confusion. Colgate stood up as Sombra approached at her side.

“That’s what happened to the others that tried to enter,” He called to them, a smile breaking his stoic face. “It seems you two don’t have that problem.” A roaring cheer rose from the crowd at their success. They could enter Colgate realized and she could not. She lowered her head wishing she could go along with them. Just when she had decided to make friends this world wouldn’t let her. Figures she thought. She felt a pony walk up beside her and give her a nudge. It was Ruya, apparently happy she had a friend to stay behind with her. At least it made somepony happy.

“We’ll be back Minuette,” A voice echoed in Colgate’s head. She looked up and the two sisters turned to the cavern and continued their decent. “Wait for us.” It must have been Celestia. As if she would or even could leave without them, she thought. Luna couldn’t have been any more wrong. It wasn’t the sisters who had needed her to get back to Canterlot, it was her that had needed them to even survive past the mountain caves, to lead her into the Everfree, and ultimately to teach her, so she could finally go back. Of course she would wait. Celestia didn’t have to tell her.

“Well,” Sombra said. “There’s no telling how long that will take them.” Colgate watched as they faded into the cave things probably happening as they should for once. “Up for another lesson?” Colgate turned back to Sombra. It couldn’t hurt, she thought. It was better than just waiting and maybe it would get her somewhere this time.

“Sure,” Colgate said, lacking enthusiasm.

“I have a better location than my study in mind this time.”

“Oo!” Ruya trotted in a circle. “Do we get to use the arena?”

“Yes Ruya,” Sombra replied. “Don’t get too excited.”

“Yay!” Ruya hopped back up onto Colgate’s back. “Lead the way!”

“A-arena?” Colgate became a bit worried. She didn’t like the sound of the word arena. It made her think they were going to be fighting or something and she knew there was no way for somepony like her to match Sombra at magic.

“Don’t worry,” Sombra said sensing her rise in tension. “It’s just more ideal because there’s more space and mishaps won’t damage anything important. Come on.” Colgate started following him, the cheers of the crowd dwindling down behind them as they left. Yet, they didn’t move. They seemed determined to wait it out until their leaders returned with what they thought to be the things that could save them.

“So…why’s it called an arena?” Colgate asked even though the question sounded silly in her head and still even as she spoke it.

“They used to hold magic duels there before Discord came around. Now it’s used for practicing mages like you.”

“Magic duels huh?” Colgate avoided stepping on a lump of rock that jutted out from the ground, a bump in the beginning of what turned out to be a very uneven stone street Sombra had turned down. It was evident that something other than the gradual erosion of hooves clicking across it had worn this path out.

“Yes. I know I’ve had my fair share.”

“Did you win?” Colgate felt stupid asking this too, but she was doing best to make conversation with somepony who had a passion that she didn’t really share.

“Luna always said Sombra went easy on people,” Ruya replied. “She always wanted to see him go aaalll out.”

“We’ve been over this. I didn’t want to destroy anything.”

“She was your biggest fan,” Ruya grinned.

“That was before your time kid.” Destroy anything, Colgate thought? Just how strong was Sombra? “Ah here we are.” They stopped before a set of large stone doors. Colgate stared up at the structure, her mouth agape. It was incredible. This was the arena? The place was like another entire castle built inside of the castle. Its stone walls arched toward the sky and if the castle itself had fallen around it, the place would make for more than just a backup. How big was this place? Suddenly Colgate felt like the door she had walked in was the backdoor and that somewhere the main entrance was a towering behemoth waiting to swallow her if she dared to step anywhere near it. She sunk back a bit trying to take the whole thing in, leaning a little.

“Dentist pony cowers before the scawy wocks,” Ruya narrated as she tilted up with the slant of Colgate’s back.

“Hey,” Colgate bucked Ruya off lightly, enough to get her to loose her grip and flop to the ground.

“Ack!” She squirmed back to her feet.

“What in the world is a dentist?” Sombra asked.

“Her,” Ruya said fluffing the dirt out of her mane.

“That doesn’t tell me much.” Colgate wasn’t sure what to tell him that would actually tell him “much.” Dentistry wasn’t a thing yet apparently, so whatever she told him about it wouldn’t make sense. Although, she considered, she could just boil it down as basically as it went.

“I-uh…clean teeth.” She told him. He raised an eyebrow and Colgate immediately knew she had only made herself look weird.

“You…clean teeth?” Sombra repeated.

“Oo! Are mine clean?” Ruya donned a huge grin showing off a set of sparkling white chompers. Colgate returned a slight nostalgic smile. She had never cleaned the teeth of a crystal pony before. If every pony’s teeth were as naturally white as Ruya’s she wouldn’t have ever needed to consider dentistry.

“That’s a pretty nice set,” Colgate said. “I’d give you a brush if I had one.”

“If I didn’t know better I’d say you were stalling,” Sombra said clicking a hoof against the stone door of the arena.

“You next,” Colgate said. “How are your teeth?” She bounced up to him excitedly. He paused for a few moments, processing her strange eagerness.

“I’ll pass,” He said as he ground the stone door across the dirt to open it. “Although you would do well to transfer that passion here.” Colgate frowned at his refusal of her request, but Sombra didn’t seem like the type that would give her a grin just because he was prompted. He was far too dignified for that and he carried himself with the air of a sage, a wise stallion rigid in his ways.

“Ruya has told herself that dentist pony should take Luna’s advice,” Ruya blurted out. “What’s Luna’s advice?”

“You said it not her,” Sombra replied. “Now let’s go.” Colgate followed as Ruya shrugged and happily trotted along behind her uncle. Her comment had indeed been random, but Colgate knew there was only one time Luna had actually given her advice. But how could Ruya have known about that? That had been before they reached Canterlot. Then again, it certainly wouldn’t have been the first time the filly had known something she wasn’t supposed to. But Luna’s advice wasn’t any less confusing as Colgate recalled it. “Imagine your magic as something you like.” That was it, wasn’t it? She didn’t really know how to apply that, but she supposed that maybe she would figure it out as Sombra taught her whatever he had in store.

They made their way down a narrow stone hallway that split into two heading in opposite directions at a T part of the way in. Sombra took a right and her and Ruya followed in turn. The hallway took a left after that and soon enough, Colgate found herself walking out of a doorway that opened up into an immense elliptical enclosure surrounded by stone seating. It was the spitting image of the coliseums one might read about in legends of gladiators. The arena itself was covered in a lawn of grass, lush despite obvious scorch marks along the walls and dips in the soil where there had been gashes in the earth. Magic duels in her time were more like spell competitions. This looked like it had been the site of huge battles with spells Colgate had probably never seen before. She nearly tripped in a rut as she walked onto the field a few pieces of glittering crystal catching her eye. She lifted her hoof away from it as if the stuff contained some kind of curse and kept walking. Sombra waited for her in the center of the arena as Ruya skipped about in the grass humming to herself. The enclosure seemed to isolate sound within itself and the walls shunned the breeze that had been there before. She approached Sombra who was keeping a glancing eye on Ruya to make sure she didn’t do anything strange.

“I thought I would take your lesson in a different direction today,” He began his eyes shooting to the left momentarily as Ruya poked at the soil in a pothole.

“How…so?” Colgate asked slowly.

“Well time freezing would get tiring,” He replied. “And, in light of knowing your magic is spatially based, I figured I would explore that side of your magic.” Colgate found herself disliking the way Sombra talked about teaching her. Celestia had so much consideration for her students, while Sombra with his “I figured I would explore…” made her lessons out to be more like research for himself. He seemed uninterested in her actually knowing her magic while he focused on what she was actually capable of. It made her feel like more like a test subject than a student. But, he had his reasons and Sombra certainly wasn’t her enemy.

“Well,” He began. “When Luna went to get you earlier, I learned from Celestia that you performed not only transformation magic, but projection as well.”

“What?” Colgate knew when she had done transformation, granted it was entirely accidental like most of what she had done so far, but when had she done projection? She hadn’t even heard that word used in the context of magic until now. “Projection?”

“She mentioned you using metal cubes?” Sombra inquired. Colgate knew immediately what he was referring to. Celestia had seen her take her anger out on Screwball after her mishap that got them separated in the Everfree. The objects she tried to smash the mare with were probably what Sombra was talking about.

“I guess…I did?” Colgate was unsure of herself.

“Well…Try it again,” Sombra said. Colgate returned this statement with a blank stare, no idea where or even how to begin. She looked to Ruya and recalled her statement. Still nothing, that didn’t help. Sombra waited a few moments sensing her state of complete cluelessness.

“You know,” He said. “You seem to be much more reactive than proactive with your magic. Perhaps this will help.” Sombra’s horn lit up and from a pile of loose rocks tucked in the corner of the arena, he brought over a large stone and held it aloft next to himself. “I’m going to throw this rock straight up. When I do, I want you to stop its ascent in any way possible for you.” Colgate eyed the rock and then looked back to Sombra.

“I can…do anything?” She asked tentatively.

“No specifics,” He confirmed. “Just stop the rock any way you can. It seems to be the method that gets you the most results so far.” Colgate looked at the rock timidly again. This didn’t really help. Now that she could do anything, she didn’t know what to do. It wasn’t like she knew how she had conjured up those cubes. She had just…done it. Because…well because! There didn’t seem to be any logic to it, her magic just did what it did because it had a mind of its own. Could she tap into that? Tell it what to do?

“Ready?” This statement from Sombra put her on edge because of the tricks he had pulled with it the last time. Colgate nodded, ready for the stone to shoot into the air at any second even before she had moved her head. Yet, this time Sombra nodded in turn and looking to the rock and then to her let it, quiet deliberately, soar into the air for her to stop. She focused on the object, her horn lighting up. She clenched her eyes shut as the rock climbed higher and nothing happened trying to get her magic to work as hard as she could. She felt a spark. Come on, she urged it.

Suddenly a pulse erupted from her horn and she was sent tumbling backwards across the turf like a lopsided barrel. She skidded to a halt several meters away, picking up soil and roots into her fur as she dug into the dirt. She lay there for a bit in a state of pain, hearing the rock flop to the ground with a thud, untouched.

“Owie,” Ruya exclaimed. “Are you okay dentist pony?” She heard the mare trot up to her and felt a nudge in the side like the filly was poking at an animal that she didn’t know was dead or not. Colgate struggled to her feet her knees shaking a bit, the fur on them soiled in brown and green.

“Blech,” Colgate spat away from Ruya. Some of the grass and dirt had gotten in her mouth and it was screaming for mouth wash. Of course she had none and she spat several times brushing her tongue off with her hooves to try to get the plant matter that clung to it off.

“That,” Sombra said, farther away from her than he was before. “Was the worst method of focus I’ve ever seen.” Colgate lowered her ears and looked away. She knew she was no good at this. “Get back over here.” Colgate sulked back to where she had been standing like a reprimanded kindergartner going to her time out corner. She flopped to a sitting position ready to be scolded for her incompetence.

“Hey,” Ruya said. “Don’t be a meanie to her.” Ruya shook one of her small hooves at Sombra as if to intimidate him. He ignored her and looked to Colgate.

“Chin up,” He said flatly. Colgate didn’t lift her head, but simply moved her eyes to meet his downward gaze. He let out a sigh his deeper voice making it sound more like a grumble.

“Why did you try so hard?” This seemed like a silly question to Colgate.

“How else am I supposed to get my magic to work?” She asked.

“Surely Celestia told you that you need only just enough?” She nodded. She had, Colgate remembered. Celestia had showed her using her levitation spell that something that simple should feel like she wasn’t even using magic.

“Well she was right. Put all of your energy into a spell and its just going to implode on itself as you saw.” Sombra’s gaze was stern as he said this and it was hard for Colgate to keep looking at him in light of her failure to learn. “I want you to try again, but this time don’t overdo it. If magic required the brain busting you just tried, no one would use it. It would be too inefficient. Now,” he lifted the rock back up from the soil with his magic to throw again. “Ready?” Colgate nodded, sniffling as she wiped her nose with a hoof. She stood back up and readied herself bleakly emotionless.

With a smooth swish, the rock flew back into the air and Colgate closed her eyes. She didn’t want to look at it. It would just mess her up again if she was too conscious of what she was doing. It was quiet. She focused on one action, bringing the rock down and let her magic flow toward it. Imagine your magic, she reiterated from the first part of Luna’s advice. Maybe that was the only part she needed. There was a snap like the cracking of whip and the sound like ropes straining against a pulling force. This lasted for only a second and Colgate heard the rock plummet and smash into the ground like a meteor rather than just a stone.

“Whoa!” She heard Ruya say, unable to see how her eyes lit up at the sight. “That was cool!” Colgate opened her eyes. On both sides of her were strands of three strips of white material that had appeared from behind her and wrapped themselves around the stone in the air like a lasso and drug it back down.

“A solid projection spell…” Sombra muttered.

“What is this stuff?” Ruya asked, playfully fluffing it around now that it had slack to it. The strands fluttered to the ground like paper at Colgate’s sides seemingly loosing whatever was holding them on her end. She picked up one of the sets of three with a hoof feeling the strangely smooth material. It was familiar and the smell sent waves of nostalgia through her. It was a nice scent and one she hadn’t realized she missed so much until now. I was a clean smell, the same stuff she had at home.

“It…” Colgate couldn’t believe it. “It’s floss.”

“Floss smells funny,” Ruya said. Suddenly all of it broke into little pieces and evaporated into the air like it had been made of nothing more than bubbles. It was a shame, Colgate thought, she could have used some of that to clean her direly in need teeth.

“What…” Colgate said as she tried to catch a few of the fizzling fragments before they vanished. “What happened to it?”

“That’s projection,” Sombra explained.

“What’s that?”

“A form of magic that can temporarily create matter from the mind of the user.” Sombra eyed her curiously. “You confuse me…”

“I do?” Colgate glanced to Ruya who was poking at the ground in disappointment now that her funny new toy was gone.

“I asked you stop a rock, which should just be a matter of object manipulation, but you go and do something far more complicated.”

“Is uh…Is that bad?”

“Depends on the unicorn I suppose…” He stopped, thinking for a moment. “Let’s try that again.”

“O-Okay.”

“This time, I want you to try to hit me.” Silence. Colgate didn’t have anything to say to this and Ruya must have not been paying attention. Colgate glanced around, but no matter how many times she looked back to Sombra he remained entirely serious about what he had just said.

“You…want me to what?” Maybe she hadn’t heard him right.

“When I throw the rock up this time,” He explained. “I want you to try using it as a weapon.”

“Against…you?” Sombra nodded with a smirk. It was plain that he enjoyed competition, but Colgate wasn’t entirely keen on the idea. Up until this point, she had been using her magic mostly for utility purposes so she could learn what she needed to. Now, Sombra was asking her to use her magic for combat. It wasn’t just that aspect that made her uncomfortable, but that she was against a unicorn like Sombra. She hadn’t seen much of his magic yet, but he apparently been quite good at dueling. Colgate wasn’t afraid of hurting Sombra, but rather that in trying to do so, he might hurt her in his defense. She swallowed nervously, wishing Sombra had been the one able to make the journey for the elements so she might have Celestia to stay behind and teach her.

Sombra raised the rock back from where Colgate had driven it into the ground, leaving another rut to join the others. Colgate readied herself for whatever was about to happen, wondering how in Equestria she was going to take a swing at Sombra. Then again, why did she have to do the same thing she did before? Wouldn’t he be expecting that? She thought for a moment. If he was going to make this challenging for her, she might as well return the favor. But how? The answer had to be time. It was the one thing she had on her side that Sombra didn’t. She had an idea and as Sombra tossed the rock up into the air, she went mostly on what she thought felt right.

She couldn’t over focus, but set her gaze on the rock not with the intention of stopping it, but slowing it down. She went until she felt her magic click, the technique Celestia told her to use when she was teaching her in the Everfree. The scene before she became color washed, the hue of everything dulling to a near gray, but leaving a hint of life left in it. All of it slowed to a crawl and this time Colgate watched as the strips of floss shot from tiny pockets in space behind her lassoing the rock like she had before. She imagined her movements must have appeared wickedly fast to any pony else, but to her, her actions were calculated and deliberate. She swung the rock not down, but brought it around, arching it to ground level and sending it barreling toward Sombra from the side like a mace. A splitting pain in her head, broke her spell, time resuming its normal flow just before the rock was about to meet Sombra’s side. As color lit up her vision, so did a bright flash as the rock shattered against something at Sombra’s side making a sound like breaking glass.

Colgate flopped down and looking up dizzily, saw the ground around Sombra hissing with heat, nothing but rubble left of the stone she had been using for practice. He looked angry, horrifyingly angry. She feared the worst. There was actually a scratch across his face near his nose, where a fragment of rock had managed to graze his skin. She had hit him. She had thought her idea had been silly and she had been okay with that because she was used to blundering with her spells, but as soon as she had tried something she thought was ridiculous, it had actually worked. Although, she had found, slowing time down was twice as hard as just stopping it. Maybe there was some sort of explanation for that, but she didn’t care to hear it, she was too busy fearing for her life.

“Whoa!” Ruya exclaimed. “That was fancy dentist pony.” She went to make her way over to Colgate, but Sombra motioned for her to stop.

“Stay there Ruya,” He yelled to her. Colgate sunk as close to the ground as she would go. Sombra approached her with a gaze that looked like he meant to kill her. His pupils had shrunk from the light blast and it seemed like they had done so to focus his gaze so it would cut through her to save him some trouble. As he stopped on front of her Colgate slinked back awkwardly, not bothering to stand.

“I-I…um…eheh…mmmmmmm.” Colgate squirmed uncomfortably as Sombra stared down at her. Then, a tiny smile broke his composure.

“Ahahahaha!” He burst into a hearty laughter. Colgate’s tension loosened wondering if Sombra had lost his mind because of the impact. “You-” He stumbled with his speech through his laughs. “You looked like you thought…That…That I was going to kill you.” I didn’t know you weren’t, Colgate thought. She had thought she had somehow managed to get on the bad side of one of the more powerful unicorns she had met because she had finally succeeded. Sombra gave her the impression that if she had he might have actually been serious. But this was unfair.

“Stop being creepy uncle!” Ruya stomped a hoof. For once, Colgate knew where she was coming from. She walked her way over to Colgate with short angry steps and stood next to her, giving Sombra her pouting child face.

“Oh?” He looked at her “You’re siding with her now? I thought you liked it when I scared my opponents.”

“Not dentist pony,” Ruya reprimanded. “She’s innocent.” Innocent of what Colgate wasn’t sure, but it was better to have Ruya on her side.

“Well…” Sombra calmed down. “In any case, that was quite the spell. What did you do?” Colgate stood up, trying to process the fact that a knowledgeable mage was asking her, an amateur mage how she had performed a spell.

“I…well,” Colgate brushed a hoof against the back of her head. “I thought I would try slowing time down. You know, mix it up?”

“Ah,” He mused. “That explains how you did that so quickly.”

“It hurt…” She recalled the feeling. It hadn’t been the oppressive headache or gradual exhaustion when she had stopped time, but a splitting pain that had rendered her unable to continue the spell. Maybe she should have been taking notes. It seemed like an awful lot for her to remember.

“I’d imagine. Can you continue?”

“I’m good now,“ She paused “…Wait…how did you block that?” Sombra turned away to go back to where he had been, leaving her question unanswered. “Hey!” He turned back to her with a smile.

“I wouldn’t be a very good magician if I told you now would I?” Colgate’s jaw dropped. He couldn’t be serious. Even after she had told him exactly what she had tried?

“You-…” Colgate stopped, letting out a grumble. She heard Ruya giggle. “Whose side are you on?”

“Heh,” Ruya smirked. “Dentist pony has a lot to learn about magic and mages.”

“Perhaps you’d like another duel?” Sombra suggested with his eerie version of eagerness. Colgate turned to him, for once actually willing to test her magic.

“Yeah maybe,” Colgate said almost tauntingly.

“That’s the spirit,” Sombra’s horn lit up. “A safe distance Ruya. I don’t know what might happen.”

“Oh. Okay.” She trotted away seeming upset about something. It was odd. This was only the second time Colgate had seen Ruya be anything remotely down trod since she had met her. The only other time had been when she had frozen time and had refused Ruya’s offer when she wanted to show Colgate “the lights.” Nevertheless, Colgate wanted to do this. It was certainly helping her magic and anything that did that would help her get home even if it might hurt. Colgate prepared herself for whatever she had just gotten herself into. Her horn glowed and she probably focused a little too hard.