After the test was over, and school was wrapped up, Silver did not head home immediately. Instead he found Soft Blush and followed her out of the school. Trotting after her, he called out, "Soft Blush? Do you have a moment?"
She paused and looked back at him, looking nervous a moment. "I suppose..."
Silver tilted his head, "Why are you nervous? We're... friends right?"
She shook her head, then bobbed it up and down, "Well, yes, at school. My parents were ever so insistent I not socialize with you after the final bell."
Silver blinked in surprise, "What, why? Did I? I mean... what?"
Soft Blush's ears pinned back as she shook her head again, "It's... about Carrot Plate. They say you're a bad colt looking to get fillies in trouble."
Silver flopped down onto his haunches, "Oh. Do you believe that?"
Soft Blush gave a little smile, "I suppose I don't. I'm large enough to decide with whom I will socialize or not. Very well, what business did you have?"
Silver brightened quickly, "Thank goodness. I wanted to talk to you, since you're a unicorn, and you looked like you were good with your horn."
Soft blinked softly, "Did I? I wasn't the brightest, or the strongest. Whatever makes you say that?"
Silver pointed at her, "I have an eye for these things." It wasn't a lie. "Is this your first year trying?"
She shook her head, "I've taken the test for eight years."
Silver reared his head back a little, "Didn't pass?"
She held up a hoof, "Passed every time."
Silver looked her over, down to her cutie mark that looked like a face with eyeshadow, then back up at her, "If you passed, why aren't you in an academy?"
Soft Blush made a dismissive wave with her left hoof, "What use do I have with all that? It is only to satisfy my dear parents. They would be ashamed if I could not pass their boring exam. My talent is simple." Her horn began to glow and Silver felt something brushing his face. She drew out a mirror from her delicate bag and showed off Silver's new makeup. It was tasteful and subtle, likely to enhance whatever ponies thought was attractive.
Silver tilted his head one way, then the other, looking at himself, "Nice job." He had no idea if it was a nice job or not. "So are you going to work in a department store?"
Soft Blush heaved a light sigh, "I wanted to make a salon of my own, but whoever heard of one just for makeup?"
Silver tapped the ground with a hoof for a moment before he asked, "Well, wait. Maybe you're looking a bit too directly."
"Too directly?" asked Soft, "I'm afraid I haven't the foggiest what you mean. Please explain darling."
Silver flashed a light smile, "Your talent is makeup, but there's more to makeup than just prettying somepony up. What if... I wanted to be a wolf?"
"A wolf?" asked Soft, but then she frowned in thought. Her horn began to glow and the tickling returned, working over much more of Silver's body. She circled around him as she worked. Even his tail got a moment of being worked on. Soon she stopped back in front of him, "There. A masterpiece, if I say so myself." She wielded her mirror for him to see.
Silver struggled to restrain his giggles. It was amazing work, to be sure, but a pony werewolf -- as he was gussied up to be -- was just funny to look at. He wagged his canine like tail back and forth and shook his floppy ears. When did he get floppy ears? "I don't think wolves have floppy ears."
"But you look ever so darling," she reasoned with a smile. "This has been most interesting, but I fail to see your point."
Silver raised a hoof, only to notice it was done up to look like a paw. He snorted softly, "You're amazing. You could be working for actors, not aging housemares trying to hide their wrinkles or desperate rich ponies trying to look their best. Performers of any kind would pay a lot for you..." He trailed off, then clopped his hooves together, "I have a friend who could point you in the right direction."
"Whoever would that be?" asked Soft Blush, growing interested. "I never considered that angle before."
"Nicole Foalman. She's really nice, and she owes me a favor," said Silver just before he was bowled over to the ground under a wide-eyed Soft.
"You know the Nicole Foalman, personally?" she asked, "She's my idol! Her skill with disguise is what inspired me! Would she really help me?"
Silver flushed hard. It felt kind of nice to be pinned down by the older filly, to say nothing of that enchanting scent that clung to mares. "Uh, yes. I'm sure of it. Absolutely sure. I'll write her a letter when I get home."
She climbed off of him and lifted him to his feet with a flash of magic. "Dreadfully sorry, I lost my composure."
Silver shook his head, "It's OK. So, uh... any advice, for getting into the academy? I really want to get in."
Soft leaned forward and planted a kiss between his eyes. He wobbled in place, muscle tone vanishing. He could barely hear her over the roar in his ears, "You darling little colt. You're too young to be locked away in some stuffy academy. Besides, if you went off to an academy, we wouldn't be classmates any longer." She turned and walked off, leaving Silver to flop against a fence, breathing softly.
When his wits returned, he pushed to his hooves and moved for home. He was happy that he had helped Soft, but grunted in frustration. He still wanted to pass that exam. "Anything worth doing, is worth doing right now." A sudden sharp jolt ran through his body, and he began to prowl through the streets like the wolf he was disguised as, "When you're on the prowl. Let them hear your howl." Oh, oh god. Was he singing? He was singing. Why was he singing? "I'm a wolf in the grass, Surely I can pass, if I just put in my all." He could hear a counter-rhythm coming from somewhere, and felt the urge to be silent for a moment, though he continued to stalk along.
Equestrian song magic had him entirely in its grip. Though his body obeyed without question, his mind reeled with confusion. Suddenly Trixie stepped out of nowhere, shaking a hoof at him, "You're trying far too hard," she sang, "Gonna go down in flames. Why don't you listen to Trixie, She's faced this shame long before!" Huh, was rhyming optional? Trixie just walked off as if nothing happened, and he prowled on.
The urge to sing returned in full force and he called out, "Why don't they understand. This is where I'll make my stand. I'm good enough. It can't be that tough!"
Ponies emerged from either side, singing his words back at him, "This is where he'll make his stand. Why can't they understand?" Then they ducked away back into their houses. This was becoming hilarious, and scary, all at once.
Silver spotted a skateboard just sitting there and suddenly knocked it into position and hopped onto it. He zoomed down the hill towards his house at an alarming speed as he sang, "It's all coming so fast, but this test I will pass! I'm not just a colt... I'll give them a jolt, when I pass... this... test!" He was mid-air as he said the last word, soaring over a bump. The music magic fled him abruptly, leaving him back in control of his body as the skateboard came back for a landing. "Oh shit!" The skateboard hit the ground, and kept going. Silver did not.
His hooves went out from under him and he fell over, tumbling in several rolls before he came to a slow, painful, stop. He quietly hoped music magic wasn't always so... abrasive...
I think she means "...to decide with whom I will socialize..."
The phrase "as he was gussied up to be" needs to be called out from the surrounding parts of the sentence. I'd put em dashes around it, like so: "It was amazing work, to be sure, but a pony werewolf -- as he was gussied up to be -- was just funny to look at."
I think you need a question mark where that comma currently is.
I think you mean "Equestrian song magic" there.
No need to capitalize "but" there.
There's room for one more on my ship
This chapter was pretty good though. Blush has pressure to be the perfect daughter and student but is open to the possibility of rebellion. Her little slip when she got excited was a nice touch.
Song magic is like drugs. It gets you high, but when it wears off, you crash hard.
5710124 Fixed up! Did you enjoy the madness?
5710141 Song magic, not even once!
5710142 I did...well, for the most part.
Soft Blush is shipping material served on a silver platter; even with what little we know about her, she might as well have "uptown girl" stamped on her forehead (and now I can't stop thinking of that song). I frowned a tiny bit at her use of "darling" as a term of endearment, since between her high-class mannerisms, her love of beautification, and that term, she's in danger of becoming a Rarity-clone. That said, it's also nice that she's serving as a way to bring Nicole back around (though I do hope she doesn't end up helping Soft get a job somewhere else and make her exit the story).
About the musical number part, though...I wanted to like it, but I felt like the limits of this format were showing. While it's entirely believable that a spontaneous musical number would break out, text simply isn't a good medium with which to convey that. I'm not sure that there's any style of writing that could have made that work; this was largely ameliorated by the amusingly self-referential way Silver was cognizant of what was happening, though, so I give it a pass this time.
5710164 She was very much so, in a way, but Silver just steered her down a different path, to crafting disguises instead of beautification.
I tried my best with the song, I really did. ; ;
5710191 I don't doubt that you did, with regards to the song. As I said, I don't think you did a bad job, so much as you ran up against the limits of this particular medium. Making it a point of irony by referencing how Silver was literally caught up in it was probably the best way to go about it; certainly I can't think of anything that would have been better.
Equestria: Beware of uncontrolled RMN's (Random Musical Numbers ). Warning: Random Musical Numbers are not responsible for any ill conceived injury, embarrassment or hilarity that ensues.
5710229 Music magic, it's quite dangerous to those out of tune with the natural harmony of Equestria.
5710367 Lucky for us sadly for silver, Equestria will fix that for him wether he wants to be or not lol :P
When you're on the prowl, let them hear your howl.
This line immediately made me think of Iron Will.
5710540 Me too, but it's the line I came up with... Did you like it?
5710536 I don't know what Rarity has to be sad about. She's one of the top 5 most powerful unicorns in the show.
5710553 She hasn't shown any ability to do 'magic', that is, spells. She's mighty fine at telekinesis, this is sure, and her talent works well.
5710545 It's hard to picture a song without any music. It's not your fault, it's just a limitation of the medium. Even songs in Tolkein's books are kind of...flat. (I can hear the lynch mob forming already)
5710565 Aw. How was the rest of the chapter?
5710560 What about instantly transforming a curtain into a dress that was different colors, different materials and fit perfectly? Her telekinesis, while a basic use of magic has been shown lifting a large number of objects at once and some of them were quite heavy. And don't forget county-wide weather control.
5710584 Don't even start on the episode that broke a lot of things.
Where was Applejack's family? WHERE?!
Who was helping the Cakes, and why didn't they notice Pinkie missing?
What happened to the rest of the weather ponies? Did they all die of shame?
5710568 It's a little strange that everypony is getting romantically attracted to Silver Lining. While he may have an adult mind, he is giving off the visual and chemical signals of a child. Regardless of the maturity of the ponies around him, they would probably not be attracted to him in that way.
5710560 5710584 Don't forget her signature gem detection spell, her fainting couch summoning/creation spell and her illusion magic. Greater telekinesis, Lesser Conjuration and Transfiguration, Least Divination...
5710596 Huh? Who? Soft Peach was being friendly, not flirtatious. Silver took it much heavier than she delivered it.
5710584 I think you're giving Rarity more credit than she deserves. Being able to change cloth into a different color of cloth and shape it pleasingly is little more than prestidigitation. Moving several things at once isn't really more than unseen servant, albeit with some artistic "fudging" around the limitations (since we see Twilight, who is far more gifted in magic than Rarity, struggling to move several things simultaneously in a complicated pattern). Likewise, her "weather control" is notably poor - it's essentially her using her telekinesis to move clouds into a pattern, but she has very little control over them. Even her gem-finding is an innate ability, albeit one that can be taught to a proper spellcaster.
Overall, I'd call Rarity an excellent example of a unicorn that has no particular magical abilities beyond the most basic unicorn tricks, and her special talent.
5710594 Hehe, it's canon. Even if you disallow that episode, Rarity still shows off a lot more magical power than any unicorn except for Shining Armor and Trixie (I'm not counting Chosen One since she isn't a unicorn anymore)
5710602 What illusions? Likewise, her fainting couch was just something nearby that she dragged over to her with her telekinesis, as I recall. (Though I haven't watched the show in almost a year, so I'm likely forgetting something.)
5710608 A typical unicorn's power includes things up to, and not always including opening a jar. Rarity moved everything in her work room at once. Unseen servant can't do that.
Edit: I've had this argument before, and I thought it was with you, but I guess not.
5710594 Point 2: It's Pinkie. She runs off on a regular basis
Point 3: Yes. That and she gave them sunburns over their frostbite.
Point 1: Got nuthin'.
5710596 New kid syndrome. He's new and nice and all. Smart, decent enough with his magic, willing to reach out to others. It might wear off.
5710621 Hence why I said that was a creative fudging of the limits. Being in a song seems to loosen the restrictions of what's going on, as Pinkie and Cheese Sandwich's goof-off songs showcased.
5710617 The second fashion show in "Suited for Success" had background effects and transistions made by Rarity, and the second time she summoned her fainting couch she was outside of Ponyville.
5710617 5710639 I would think so about the fainting couch, but she's managed to pull it out in the middle of a park in Lesson Zero. As for the illusions; the fashion show.
5710603
He's ten. Girls have cooties. She would not be expecting him to like that, since any other colt his age would yell, "EWWW" and make a show of scrubbing himself.
5710639 5710646 Those effects don't strike me as being anything more fancy than some variants on dancing lights or prestidigitation (it's also somewhat unclear how much those are supposed to be what's seen in-character, and how much those transitions are meant for the television audience) - at the absolute most, they're 1st-level effects, and even that seems to be pushing it, since they're just scene decoration, rather than actually changing how the local area looks.
As for summoning her fainting couch outdoors, we're talking about the same unicorn who unrolled a red carpet for herself to walk all the way outside of town at the beginning of Dragon Quest. I find it easy to believe that she brought her couch with her, since she knew it was a picnic, and refused to lay on the ground.
5710670 Well, the point still stands. Non-hero unicorns have Mage Hand only. Even Light is too hard for many of them.
5710662 Not all boys are like that. The whole "girls are icky" thing is a loose guideline, rather than an absolute. Moreover, he was already treating her like any other pony when he first met her, so even she would likely think that it was odd of him if he started acting like she was gross.
5710678 Er, according to what? Even the show itself says that each unicorn has some magic related to their special talent - saying they only have mage hand isn't a hard-and-fast rule anywhere. Even Ponyfinder (which this fic isn't based on) gives them more than that.
5710690 Everglow rules don't apply to this story, it's strictly Equestria so far. Give an example of an unnamed unicorn using magic other than mage hand or light.
5710706 Hence why I said that this fic wasn't based on Ponyfinder.
Insofar as an "unnamed unicorn using more than telekinesis or light" goes, I'm not sure why you're looking for that? For one thing, why do they need to be unnamed? Also, I'm not sure what that'd prove, since Rarity herself isn't using anything beyond minor telekinesis and a variation on light anyway, enough so that it makes the underlying point moot. If she's not doing anything besides making lights appear and moving stuff around, then that already sets the bar pretty low.
5710662 And yet, girls can still feel empowered to do just that anyway. I've seen it happen. A boy not immediately recoiling isn't a big deal, considering he went with the other kinda obvious reaction(confusion and dizziness in pony-like overdone fashion). Does it really come off that strong? I wasn't trying to even imply she wanted in his pants, just happy at the moment.
5710725
You give "minor telekinesis" a lot of credit. To exactly copy some of Rarity's stunts in the Pathfinder system would require heavy investment in both the illusion and evocation schools.
5710782 That particular interaction wasn't outrageous, but I'm seeing a pretty consistent pattern. It's not that the mares go for him so much, it's that so many go for him. (Although I may be carrying across from the prequel)
5710678 To follow up further, I think that you're using some basic premises that don't hold up. For one:
There are two problems here. The first one is that Twilight flat-out tells us that every unicorn has some magic related to their special talent. Given that we have no reason not to disbelieve this statement, that means that every unicorn has some magical ability that's more than just moving things around.
Second, I'm not sure where you get the idea that the reason that unicorns can't create light (and that's granting the premise that they can't at all) is because it's too difficult for them, rather than they just didn't care to learn. Is there anything that specifically says that the reason they don't know is because they tried to learn but couldn't?
She did this during a song sequence, which tends to be when "cartoon logic" is at its zenith. This highlights the fact that every single thing in the show can't be taken as literal - Pinkie Pie is the living example of this principle in action. Sometimes we need to grant that something (like Twilight being hit in the face with a door, and her face being literally flattened for a moment) isn't what's "actually" happening, and remove it from our quantifying how things work in the context of that universe. Rarity's moving several mannequins at once during her musical number is one of those times.
5710800
5710725 Now kiss!
I couldn't help myself... Why does the mental image of angry Twilight and Alzrius having really angry kisses as they argue and cuddle in fury.
5710821
She also did it in "Sisterhooves Social" after Sweetiebelle's unsolicited cleaning inspired her. No music.
5710800 That's because of the limits of the Pathfinder game system; it's a class-level system that locks abilities into packages based around what levels you have in what classes, as well as assigns quite a few restrictions to how magic functions.
When I wrote up Rarity's stats using a point-buy d20 system that didn't enforce those constraints, it was very easy to duplicate her abilities (notwithstanding instances of "cartoon logic") without going above 1st level.
5710821 In the fic, the assumption is that unicorns can glow, move things, or do magic related to their talent without any formal training. Even snips and snails manage to produce a light, which heavily implies it's not that rare a thing.
5710828 Ick, where did I leave my mind bleach?
5710848 In my aforementioned write-up, I have all unicorns being able to use two instances of greater mage hand (from 3.5) simultaneously, so maybe insofar as that goes I'll grant you some ground. But anything beyond that seems too minor a point to be salient - Rarity is clearly not any sort of above-average unicorn where magic is concerned.
5710828 Well, if I have to kiss Twilight, that's just my burden to bear.
5710853 I'd like to see her carry a 2-ton boulder with a STR of 9.
5710857 I agree; I think those three things are standard for any unicorn also - I was just blanking on instances of some background characters also creating light.
5710890 The fact that Discord created "Tom" makes any presumptions regarding its nature suspect at best. I don't think that any calculations regarding how much a stone of that size should weigh can be relied upon because of that.