Collision Code

by SSJRandomMaster

Act 2 Chapter 4

Act II: Collision Course
Chapter 4: The Real Lessons Begin
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“Easy, easy, almost there…”

John was continuing his lessons today. And just like every other time beforehand, he had just jumped off of the edge of the waterfall. But his fall was different this time. This time, he managed to control his fall by catching the air with his wings. The first time he’d opened his wings mid-fall, it had sent him way off course and resulted in a crash landing.

At least this time, it’s going better… It took a bit of effort, but now he was able to control his path as he slowly descended towards the water below. Occasionally, he’d catch a wayward updraft along the way, but his control was far better.

“Good, you’re almost there,” Rainbow said, floating down next to him, “Now I want you to try and land on the ground.”

John gave Rainbow a nod and arched his wings slightly so that he could move forward.

I have more control over my wings now than I did before…how much thought did she put into this? John thought, continuing his way downwards, his eyes locked to the ground not too far from the water. It wasn’t too long until he was floating just a few feet above it, slowly listing downwards, fighting gravity.

Now for the moment of truth…

All at once, John retracted his wings. His feet made contact with the ground—a good, clean impact, no slips, no spills. For several seconds, John looked down at the ground for several seconds, in pure disbelief, before looking back up at the waterfall.

That was…my first clean landing…

“Not bad,” Rainbow said, patting John on the back, “You’re getting your wing control down but you’re still going a little too slow. Tomorrow, we’ll work on your speed.”

“Can’t wait,” John said, turning back to her with a smile.

“Great,” Rainbow said, beginning to walk off, “Now, come with me.”

“Where are we going?” John asked, already beginning to follow.

“Just to have a little fun,” Rainbow said, with a sly smile on her face, “We’ll need markers and some big pieces of parchment.”

John wasn’t sure of what Rainbow had in mind at all, but he had a pretty good feeling it wasn’t going to be anything too bad.

After all, John thought, continuing to follow Rainbow, a little fun never hurt anyone, right?
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It was another late morning for Corey. Though, considering everyone else who lived in the library seemed to be an early bird, it wasn’t saying much today. While Corey was a bit slow in getting ready for the day, he was ready, and it was time for him to start learning some actual magic.

Which was why he was walking through the hallways of the library now.

Now that I know I can access magic, I really don’t have an excuse… Corey thought, She knows I don’t take that long…so where’d she go…

Corey felt his ear twitch, an annoying sensation he was still getting used to. He picked up the sound of shuffling parchment, a sound that would have escaped his notice were it not for the fact it happened in a room next to him. The door was slightly ajar; offering him a very small viewing window into the room. Corey looked to the door hesitantly, lifting one arm halfway.

Please don’t let me be walking in on something awkward… Corey thought to himself, taking a deep breath before walking in.

Thankfully, the reality was far more innocent than his worries. Twilight was in front of him, still in her usual outfit, her back to him. She was standing up, reading over what he assumed was a letter from Princess Celestia. Spike was a few feet to her right, facing her, an expectant look on his face.

Or does he look worried—

Before Corey could try to piece together what he was seeing completely, Spike’s eyes turned towards him, and he blinked. He then turned his attention to Twilight, and began motioning towards him.

“Twilight…” Spike said. Corey couldn’t help but notice how tense he sounded—something that wasn’t quite normal for him.

Twilight moved her head slightly; she did see him, but she was still clearly reading the letter. After a moment, she paused, turning her head a bit more to look at him, and only then did her eyes widen, rolling up the parchment and setting it down on the desk nearby.

“Oh! Corey!” Twilight gasped, quickly turning to face him, putting herself directly between him and the desk, casting a nervous glance back to the scroll she’d rolled up, “Uh…”

“I’m sorry,” Corey said, raising an eyebrow as he wondered what he’d just interrupted, “I should have knocked,” Curiosity got the better of him after he took a single breath, “What…did I walk in on, anyway?”

“N-nothing!” Twilight said, “It’s…it’s nothing important!”

“W-what she said,” Spike said, starting to very slowly move towards the door, “I’ve…uh…got to go…go brush my scales!”

“Your…scales…” Corey blinked, trying to process that information.

“Y-yeah! Good idea, Spike!” Twilight said awkwardly, clearly knowing that excuse came out of thin air. By now, Corey was really starting to sense something was up.

Twilight’s been acting weird…and now Spike seems to be, too… Corey thought.

“Did I miss something?” Corey asked. By now, Spike had left the room, leaving it as just the two of them.

“N-no,” Twilight cast another look behind her towards the letter she was reading, “It’s just…something…”

“Something…that...?” Corey took a couple of steps forward.

“It’s something you shouldn’t worry about!” Twilight said, “Sh-shouldn’t you be more worried about…about…learning your magic?’

Corey paused; it was only for a second.

“I should be—“ Corey couldn’t finish his statement.

“S-so, let’s just start worrying about that, then!” Twilight said. Seeing that arguing the point any further would be pointless, Corey relented, and could only nod, feeling both annoyed and concerned.

I should be, but I don’t like seeing you like this… Corey thought.
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A short while later, Corey sat at the same desk he’d used during previous lessons, Twilight sitting across from him. She was going a slightly different book now; a basic reference guide for unicorns learning the basics.

“Alright, now that you’ve learned how to project your cutie mark,” Twilight said, “I’m going to teach you another basic spell.”

Corey leaned back in his chair, and gave nothing more than a nod.

“That spell is something you’ve probably seen me doing already, as well as a few other unicorns,” Twilight continued, her horn alight as she shut the book and lifted it into the air, the book cloaked in an aura of the same color, “Levitation; a spell known to pretty much any unicorn, is one that allows a pony to move an object with their magic instead of their hands.”

Corey tried not to show disinterest. He knew at least this much.

“It can allow a magic user to perform several tasks at once,” Twilight continued, lowering the book back into her hands, “Once they get more comfortable with it, of course. But for now, we’re only interested in applying it to something small…hmm…”

Twilight looked around, seemingly wondering what she could give Corey to use as a test. Corey watched her, thinking about what he was about to do.

So I’m actually going to start learning this… Corey thought, I’m feeling a little…anxious, that’s it.

Twilight eventually looked directly behind her; and seemingly saw something. With a smile, she opened one of her wings.

“This’ll work…” With her right hand, she reached into her left wing, and gently removed one of the feathers there. She set the purple feather down on the desk between them, Corey eyeing the feather.

“Now,” Twilight said, “Magic is an extension of will; this spell is exactly like that. Simply put, you imagine the object moving with nothing but your mind, and if you’re casting the spell correctly, it will follow your will.”

“So…” Corey began to think aloud, “I just have to be aware of the fact the energy exists, and work from there…”

Corey closed his eyes as if he were trying to project his cutie mark, but instead of focusing on his hands, he tried to focus his mind entirely on two things: the feather, and how his magic could help him move it without touching it.

After talking to John yesterday I took some time to practice projecting my mark some more, Corey noted, I think that should make it easier…
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Twilight watched Corey and the feather carefully, taking notes on what was going on: his technique in dealing with the spell; understanding how his magic was flowing, if at all; the general picture. Corey sat completely still; head bowed, eyes closed, mouth tightly shut. At one point, he cracked one eye; seeing nothing, his brow twitched as he re-closed that one eye.

“Just focus your attention on what your magic can do about the feather…” Twilight said calmly, “Don’t get impatient. Not everypony can get it on their first try…”

Corey didn’t respond, too focused on the task at hand. For several seconds nothing happened. Then, Twilight heard a faint sound, like a kernel of popcorn popping. As soon as she heard that, Twilight’s eyes saw the sight of Corey’s horn giving off a small spark—green in color. Another pop, another spark. For barely a second, Corey’s horn lit up in a green aura, but just as quickly, it fizzled out, with Corey gasping slightly as his magic backfired. One of his hands went to the base of his horn, and he winced.

“What the…” Corey said.

“That’s normal,” Twilight reassured him, “Some first-time magic users experience backlash. It’s a force that you’re starting to learn to control. Don’t rush…”

The sentence faded off into the abyss. Corey’s eyes were closed once again, his face already bunched up in concentration, one brow slightly lowered than the other.

“It…” Twilight finished with a sigh. She looked again, resting one hand to her chin, leaning on the desk.

It’s almost unbelievable, I mean, really… Twilight thought to herself, Up until yesterday, he wasn’t even convinced he could really pull it off, but tried anyway. Now look at him. He’s already trying again…

Another “pop”; Corey flinched, rubbing his forehead again with a sharp grunt as he looked at the feather.

“Did it move…” he flatly mumbled, looking at it.

Twilight looked to the feather on the desk.

“No,” Twilight said, “It’s okay, though. But maybe you should…”

Corey sat back in his chair, arms folded over his body, glaring at the feather. Just a few moments later, Corey was back at it for a third time, both eyebrows down, eyes closed, teeth grit.

Don’t get so impatient with it… Twilight thought to herself, now just unsure as she watched him try again.
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Outside the library window, two winged figures hid behind a rather conveniently planted bush. Both watched Corey’s attempt just as Twilight did, with great interest.

“Awesome,” Rainbow commented, “He just started.”

“Seriously?” John asked, crouching down next to her so as not to be seen, “You brought us all the way here just to watch Corey’s magic lesson? I thought you said we were going to do something fun…”

“Something like that,” Rainbow answered, staring through the window. John watched her with confusion, but dug into his pocket anyway to pull out the parchment he was told to hold on to.

“Then why did we need these—“ John tried to get the question out.

“Score cards,” Rainbow already knew where he was going with that. Only now did the gears start turning in John’s head, and within moments, a small smirk split the lower half of his face. Rainbow turned to him, “Get it now?”

“Hand me a marker,” John said.

Now both pegasus and dragon were watching as Corey attempted to levitate the feather in front of him.

“You know,” John began, turning his head to look at Rainbow, “This is kind of illegal where I’m from.”

“Here too,” Rainbow said, “But only in private homes.”

“And this is a public library,” John summed up.

“Bingo!” Rainbow snapped her fingers.
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All of Corey’s attention was on the task he was assigned, every last bit of his senses focused on the horn on his head.

I have gathered magic once… Corey thought to himself, remembering the backlash that followed, I just have to hold it, just like before.

Thinking back to when he was projecting his cutie mark, after each successful attempt, he began to grasp the feel of the magic flowing within him. It was there; he could feel it.

Just like last time, feel the magic flowing through me… Another deep breath, Corey felt the flow once again; faint, but there.

Good, now focus it towards my horn… The flow began to move again, upwards towards his head. The magic began to flow slightly outwards from there, going towards a single point. His eyes closed in deep concentration, Corey did not notice when a magical green hue began to gather at the tip of his horn.

However, across from him, Twilight leaned forward just a little, seeing the aura beginning to form.

It’s…a lot more stable this time… Twilight thought.

In mere seconds, the hue grew larger, slowly engulfing the rest of Corey’s horn.

“Perfect,” Twilight spoke in a voice that was barely above a whisper, “Now for the tricky part, carefully focus your magic towards the feather…”

Corey creaked open his eyes. The feather wasn’t glowing yet. However, with that bit of information, he now knew what he was supposed to do.

Tricky is right… Corey thought, Even though it’s not much, I think it’s all I can do just to get this far along. I can’t close my eyes like before…I have to focus on the feather.

Another deep breath later, Corey tried to focus on moving his magic outside of his body, like a third hand reaching out of his horn. Time passed as he tried to will his magic on to the feather. Seconds stretched to minutes, and those minutes began to multiply at a steady rate, as Corey continued to try to will himself to do this.

Eventually, however, something happened. It was faint, but something began to change on the feather—almost like it was glowing.

The glow began to grow stronger, a green hue becoming visible.

Now for the moment of truth… Corey thought, looking at what he’d managed to do so far. He could feel the very slight weight. Only, it didn’t seem so slight; magic was a muscle he hadn’t properly trained. Keeping all his focus on what he’d done so far, Corey began to turn his will into one single word.

Up...

And within several seconds, it did. Slowly, but surely, the feather began to move vertically: up one inch, then two, and slowly rose to a third. But, after the third inch, the feather stopped moving, statically moving, like something had grabbed the so-called third hand by the wrist and held it there.

Corey stared at the feather, disappointed. However, this only lasted for a couple of seconds; he soon refocused once again.

C’mon…move, Corey urged his magic to keep following his will. But nothing happened. He continued on like this for what felt like forever, and as time continued to pass, Corey grew more and more annoyed. More of his magic began to leak into his spell, Corey trying to force the feather to keep moving. The feather began to glow brighter, but it didn’t move, instead quaking in place in mid-air.

Come on, move! Corey thought to himself as he grit his teeth.

Twilight could see Corey’s impatience growing the whole while. She knew full well how tricky magic could be, and knew Corey’s technique was beginning to falter.

“Careful, Corey,” Twilight advised, “If you force it too much, it might—“

Twilight was cut off by a flash coming from the discarded feather. The next thing she saw, the feather was glowing orange and red, engulfed in fire. Corey lost his focus the moment the feather lit up, his magic dissipating allowing it to fall back on the table. It burned out quickly and the fire died out on its own. A small scorch mark on the surface of the table was all that remained.

“Do…that…?” Corey groaned, placing his hand on the table.

“You got a little angry, didn’t you?” Twilight asked.

Corey nodded, not saying anything else.

“Magic can be influenced by a lot of things,” Twilight said, “And emotion is one of them. I know it can be frustrating, but trust me, you’ll get better at this in time.”

Corey didn’t appear convinced, leaning back in his chair and closing his eyes.

“Hey, don’t get down on yourself,” Twilight said, “You still managed to lift the feather off of the table, that’s still something.”

“Took longer than when I projected my cutie mark though…” Corey responded, closing his eyes.

“Did it?” asked Twilight, “I seem to recall it taking several attempts before you could do that. But today, you managed a new spell on the first day.”

Corey looked up to see Twilight smiling back to him.

“Does that sound like taking longer to you?” she asked again. Corey paused, unsure.

What she’s saying, Corey thought, It’s true. It took a couple days before I could project my mark. But then, I was able to cast my first real spell on the first day I learned about it.

“Maybe…” Corey started, shifting a bit, “Maybe I am getting better at this…” he looked towards Twilight again, dodging eye contact yet again, “You know what, I’m gonna try again.”

“That’s the spirit,” Twilight cheered, “Let me get you—“

Tap. Tap. Tap.

The noise got both Corey and Twilight’s attention; it wasn’t too long before they saw what was causing it. Outside the window, standing up, was John and Rainbow looking back at them, popping out of a bush?

“What are they…” Corey started, but it wasn’t long before the two figures outside the window moved.

Rainbow raised her arms above her head, revealing she was holding something: a square piece of parchment with a large number “3” in black marker ink on it. Corey looked at the number in confusion. A few seconds later, John raised his hands as well to reveal a second piece of parchment, identical to Rainbow’s except for one thing.

“Two…” Corey squinted; the two had a slightly smaller dot and a five next to it, “Point...five…?” Only now did it occur to him what he was looking at, “A-are they…scoring me…?”

Corey didn’t really feel too insulted so much as annoyed by all that once he realized what Rainbow and John were doing. He wasn’t going to give them the benefit of a reaction, though. He removed his glasses…

And saw, in the slight reflection the lenses provided, a lavender flash from behind him.

“Twilight…?” Corey asked, looking behind him. She wasn’t there. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the same flash…and the bush that Rainbow and John had hidden behind was uprooted entirely in one clean motion.

Rainbow and John both froze. Corey wiped at his glasses with one arm before putting them back on, and he saw Twilight staring down at them with her arms crossed. There was a long pause.

John eventually moved, looking down at the parchment he was holding…writing?

As soon as he was done, he raised it again and placed it on the glass of the window.

I regret nothing.
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Day 6

I guess I shouldn’t get so down on myself when things go against me in training, but I can’t help it. This is the kind of stuff that I’ve always wanted to and couldn’t back home. And now that the mark on my back is so unique I can’t even do anything with it, I’m going to just keep going at what I am. I have no idea what that even means for me, though.

Can’t believe she reacted to them doing that, though.

Still, even in the midst of lessons, I can’t forget what happened this morning. What’s going on here?

--Corey
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Day 7

I’m able to hold the feather aloft for quite a bit now. Twilight doesn’t seem to be getting any better. In fact, whatever she’s worried about, I’m convinced she’s lost sleep. I’m actually on break while she went out into town. She acted strangely when a letter from Princess Celestia came in earlier too. Not too long afterward, Spike and her left, saying they needed to go into town to get some things. What, I can’t think of, they already did that a few days ago…

Still, I guess it couldn’t hurt to try to perform levitation on the quill. And try to write that way…

Then again, I did just set a feather on fire from trying too hard. Don’t want to lose this quill if I can help it.
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I’m convinced Twilight’s got something that she’s really worried about now. What, I have no clue. I haven’t seen any signs that something…like that is going on. The day and night cycles normally still, and nothing seems out of place. Yet, she’s stressing out over something. And the more she tells me not to, the more concerned I get.

It’s not any of my business, I keep hearing that over and over again. But I’d feel bad if she flipped out completely over it if I could have tried to talk her down if I knew what was going on.

I can’t focus on this forever, though. Tomorrow I’m going to keep practicing levitation.

‘Til next time,

--Corey

Author's Note:

And that wraps up another weekly update. This is where I leave off for another week. So yeah. There's that and stuff.

Comments

[The master of the game]

Nice chapter. It was quite funny what Rainbow and John did.

On another note, yes, I am the same The master of the game from fanfiction.net.

[dyedquartz]

I'm confused, what is "scoring"?

[Enderdragonslayer1]

7092248 We'll tell you when you get older