• Published 11th Jun 2012
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Solaris - Gus



Nova seems like your ordinary unicorn but his magic reserves say otherwise.

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Welcome To Ponyville

Present Day

“Another drink please” slurred Nova at the bartender, trying his best to sound a lot more drunk than he was.

The bar was one of the more unsavoury ones, everypony there seemed to find his presence unwelcome he was too lively for the place and he knew it. He had made sure that most of bar had seen him and heard him almost every time he ordered a drink. Making sure to show of the extra bits he carried around while doing so, it was all part of his game. By this point any normal pony would be on the floor with the amount of alcohol consumed but Nova was far from ordinary.

“Who’s up for a magic tussle” Nova shouted.

Looking around the room he saw everypony staring him down. He in turn quickly observed them, picking up on the magical strength of the unicorns in the room, the ability to sense magic was in all unicorns though most never aware of it or not even strong enough to sense others, every pony gives off at least a small aura but much more prominent in unicorns that the other races. Nova however had mastered this ability and quickly worked out who was the weakest and who was the strongest. He eyed a slightly older grey stallion in the corner and approached him he was the weakest he would be the lucky one.

“10 bits to the winner you up for it?” Nova said making sure to keep up his drunken charade. The other stallion just nodded in agreement.

Nova sat down opposite him and got ready to put on a show. Magic tussle is a simple enough game two competitors one object, move the object to your side of the table with your magic and you win. An empty glass sat on the table between them now in a golden aura from Nova and a grey aura from the other stallion. I hate this bit Nova thought to himself as he knew what he had to do.

“Pay up colt” The older stallion said to Nova, as the glass moved to his side of the table.

“Eh double or nothing I didn’t grab it right” The grey stallion just nodded again and reset the glass.

He made sure this time there was more of a struggle but still let the other stallion win it would pay off in the long run it always did. He paid the stallion the bits and looked around, “You are too strong for me though I want to win my bits back, 50 bits who wants a go”. The Pegasus and earth ponys in the room that had been paying attention now looked slightly annoyed knowing full well that only unicorn’s would be able to make a quick and easy profit from this young stallion. A large unicorn with a dark black coat and green mane sat down in front of Nova, Nova could tell he had slightly higher than average magic.

“How about we make it 100” the black coated unicorn said with confidence.

“100 that sounds fine with me” 100 well I didn’t expect to be getting that high just yet, Looks like he will be my one and only customer.

The glass was reset and the tussle began again, Nova let himself lose outright with very little resistance. “Once more I know I do better than that”

“Well the next one is gona be 300 bits if you want a chance to win your money back” The black stallion said thinking he can extract more value from this drunk pony.

“300... bits... fine, let’s go” Nova stammered keeping up his show, too many times had he dropped his charade too early and lost his nights work.

The glass was reset, both the golden aura and the black aura covering it. “3 2 1” Nova heard one of the onlookers shout. A smirk appeared across Nova’s face as the black coated unicorn strained as he tried to move the glass from the starting position not being able to budge it at all.

“Can I start now?” Nova asked mockingly. Slowly he started moving the glass to his edge not wanting to completely embarrass the unicorn.

“You, you tricked me”

“Well a bit, but I believe we agreed on 300 bits” The black coated stallion looked around him, he has stayed in the bar late after his friends had left, he wasn’t going to get in a fight without any backup.

“Fine this is all I got on me, but I’ll get you for this” he set a bag of bits on the table which Nova then magically counted.

“273, well I suppose it will have to do, well you have a good night now” Nova said as he got up and went to leave the bar. Up around 250 bits not a bad night.

Leaving the bar he slowly trotted down the street, keeping an eye on the front of the bar he knew from past experiences that his antics could attract the more undesirable kind of ponies especially in the rougher establishments. Please don’t follow me just a few more seconds and I’ll be in the clear.

“Buck” Nova mumbled under his breath as he heard the bar door open and close again. Turning around he saw two unicorns one had a blue coat with green mane the other a forest green coat and dark almost black mane. They both looked towards Nova locking eyes with him, Nova knew what was going to happen so decided to find an alleyway that could hide the inevitable event. Seeing a turn off on the street he galloped off into it knowing the other unicorns would be quickly following.

“Looks like you took a wrong turn” the green unicorn said upon entering the alleyway.

“I always offer thugs like you one chance to walk away before they get hurt, are you two going to be the first to take it?” Nova said with a little smile.

“You think I’m going to walk away, you see my cutie mark I got it from my first mugging” the green unicorn showed of his flank revealing a horseshoe with some drops of blood of it.

“Trying to act tough, you don’t even have a cutie mark, a blank flank at your age, and your giving us the chance to walk away bucking hilarious.” Nova would normally wait for them to make the first move but if anyone made fun of his lack of cutie mark that changed things.

“Wrong move making fun of...” Nova was abruptly interrupted by two hoofs to the face. Nova dropped to the floor bucking Pegasus should have checked the skies.

The quiet unicorn searched Nova with his magic and pulled out his bag of bits levitating it into the air in front of him. “That’s the first time I’ve been hit in a long time that actually hurt, I’ll be taking that back now” Nova said trying to shake off the pain in his head. He took a quick glance around at the now much closer unicorns and the now brown Pegasus standing behind him. Pegasus first, Nova picked up a stone on the ground with his magic and flung it at the Pegasus’s head quickly knocking him to the ground. He could feel the other two now trying to lift him directly with their magic though having no effect.

“Having trouble there?” Hearing and seeing it was having no effect, they changed tact and attempted to throw any objects at him. Any object that was lifted into the air by them was quickly taken over my Nova’s magic. “Remember when I told you to walk away before you got hurt well it’s to late now” Nova said as he threw all the objects knocking both the unicorns out while giving them some other minor injuries.

Nova picked up the bag of bits of the ground and trotted away from the scene of three unconscious ponies. He finally trotted of towards the ponyville inn for a well deserved nights sleep.

----

Nova sat on a hill just on the outskirts of town, waiting for the return of the sun. He could see it peeking over the horizon and as the light washed over him he felt refreshed and revitalized. I want that feeling again; I’m meant to be connected to you though I don’t know why. Every day he would go through these thoughts he couldn’t forget how he felt when connected to the sun all those years ago, he never dared risking the connection again not after what had happened but he could never shake the temptation it was always there always calling to him getting stronger and stronger the more time that past.

He sat on the hill until the sun had completely risen past the horizon, deciding to go back into the town he would be spending the next few nights in, he would also need to scope out a new bar the same trick never works twice in the place.

What a friendly town, much nicer than the cities Nova thought as he traversed the streets of ponyville. He wasn’t used to other ponies acknowledging each other as they went about their daily life, in the cities every pony was just a number but that didn’t seem to be the case here. He had now made it to the town market. About time for breakfast Nova thought to himself looking around the market for something to eat. He spotted an orange mare selling’s apples in the market and started approaching her when something very pink covered his vision. “Hello I’m Pinkie Pie what’s your name I haven’t seen you before”.

“Well hello Pinkie Pie my names Nova and yes I just got into town last night” Nova said slightly startled as he took a few steps back to get a better look at the mare in front of him. I’ve never sensed any magic like this from any pony and she’s an earth pony Nova thought as Pinkie started bouncing around him singing some song, he was too interested in the aura she was giving off, it was rare for Pegasus ponies but much rarer for Earth ponies to give off anything noticeable. “New best friend” Nova caught at the end of Pinkie’s song.

“Best friend?”

“I’m your new best friend I’m best friends with everypony in town so what’s your favourite colour what about food why don’t you have a cutie mark oh sorry my favourite colour is pink you should come down to sugar cube corner you can get cupcakes and muffins”

“Calm down, one question at a time”

“Oh would you look at the time I got to go you should come down to sugar cube corner around noon I’ll get you a free cupcake” pinkie said disappearing as soon as she finished the sentence.

Well that was strange encounter, but a free cupcake would be nice. I’ll look for this sugarcube corner later.
He looked towards the stand where he thought the mare selling apples would still be but was surprised to find she wasn’t there. “I see you met Pinkie Pie” said the orange mare suddenly at his side.

“What is it with this town and sneaking up on ponies” Nova said as he turned to greet the mare. The first thing he noticed about here was she had a very similar magic to Pinkie Pie. Two earth ponies in a row something strange is going on this town.

“Well shucks I’m sorry bout that, I’ve never seen you before and I know how excited Pinkie can be meeting new ponies”

“Ye she had a lot of energy, I’m Nova by the way, I was actually on my way to buy one of your apples before I got interrupted”

“Applejack’s tha name”

“You wouldn’t be one of the apple family?”

“Yes, why’d ya ask”

“I have been travelling for a while now and it’s quite a big family, I do appreciate the product as well”

“Lets get you some apples then, how many do you want” applejack said trotting back towards her stand.

“Two will do me fine thanks, how much is will that be”

“2 bits will do just fine, by the way what did Pinkie say to you”

“Oh she just welcomed me, asked me some questions and offered me a free cupcake if I came to her shop at noon today” Nova said as he levitated some bits to Applejack.

“It’s was nice to meet you Nova, I’ve got to get back to work but I’ve a feeling we will be meeting again soon” Applejack said as she noticed two customers queuing up behind Nova.

“Ok then goodbye” Nova said as he walked away wondering about that last comment, probably just being friendly well back to exploring, I want to check if other ponies have magic like these two and I still got to find a bar for tonight.

Nova spent the rest of the morning exploring the town he found a few possible bars that he could hit tonight, he even saw a building made out of what seemed to be a hollowed tree. Well it was definitely an interesting town now to get my free cupcake. He made his way to sugarcube corner which he had found in his exploration of the town. “SURPRISE” was all he heard as he walked through the door.