The Enforcer and Her Blackmailers

by scifipony

Chapter 8: Shimmering Issues

I was reading Understanding Pony Behavior, by Verbs and Crow Well, on a bench when I noticed Sunset Shimmer's approach in the corner of my eye. Yellow and red were hard to miss for anypony but a blind one. The page rustled as I turned it and asked, "Can you even see my magic?"

"That's a stupid question. Say, that looks like an university textbook."

"Yup," I said, snapping it closed and stretching in the warm sun I'd reclined in. "Ponies pay me for my work, thus I can afford to buy myself a little something special now and again." As I finished the stretch, I could taste a levitation spell reaching out to turn the book so she could read the title. I looked directly into her green eyes, startling her, watching her ghostly numbers fade from her aura. "Leviathan's Corollary, the third, not the second."

"What?"

"The algebraic proof behind the magical maths you're using to reach for the book." I lifted the book and held it between us. "Don't you see the numbers?"

She blinked, blinked again. "I—"

"You missed taking magic kindergarten, didn't you? Look, I understand you were living on the street, but this is fundamental." I scooted back on the bench and waved a hoof to invite her to join me. Soon we were like two face-to-face sphinxes, the book in my blue-green magic between us.

She said, "Celestia placed me in the third grade."

"So, she's not omniscient."

"Cheeky filly."

"My point is that in magic kindergarten, you learn to mimic the magic of your teacher by mirroring your teacher's numbers."

"Numbers?" She tilted her head and her ears shifted forward.

"Most children that age cannot yet generate numbers from equations. I couldn't."

"You want me to cast magic like a foal?"

"It's just another learning method; it would make it a lot easier to teach you. You certainly need it to defend yourself. The most powerful force spell is useless if someone burns you first."

"You're talking combat magic!"

"Didn't you ever have to face bullies—" That was evident in the flash of her eyes. "When you're a foal, there comes a time when bullies learn to evaluate the magic you're using and how good it is before deciding whether or not it's safe to torture you. That is a skill acquired in magic kindergarten, not regular kindergarten. You want to continue being a high level unicorn? Learn to read other ponies' magic. Learn to read Princess Celestia's magic. Now that would be interesting."

"Fine," she said skeptically, her impatience evident in her tone.

"Fine. Just stare at my magic. Try to sense what I'm doing."

After a few minutes of her staring, trying sometimes with her eyes closed, sometimes leaning in— "I just see your aura."

"That's good. It proves you're not magically blind. Keep looking… Let your eyes go unfocused…" This was becoming tiring. "Try to imagine how you would cast the spell yourself… You do see your own numbers, right?"

"Ugh!" She had been working her own levitation spell like clay in her mind, not releasing it. I'd seen it fomenting in her aura. In an instant, prep complete, she grabbed the book and slammed it to the redwood slats of the bench so hard that the bang startled a passerby to whinny and caused the wood to groan. At least she was strong. She shouted in my face, "What do you mean by numbers?"

"Well, that's a weird question. You know… bright, flaming, swirly, twirly, digity things that form a cloud in your head when you solve magical equations—?"

"I. Don't. See. Numbers!"

I sat up, taking my turn blinking in surprise. "I clearly sense the numbers swirling in your aura, and can get a good sense of the equations you were solving to modulate the magic pulse. You don't?"

"You're obviously a freak."

"I've read it's pretty commonplace, in fact—" I cracked the book, found magic, visualization in the index, then flipped pages. "Look," I said pointing as I read, "Some 90 percent of unicorns report seeing ghost images during spell casting. In modern times, magic users understand the phenomenon is stimulation of the visual and aural complexes of the brain by modulated magical energy. This was determined by the famous Bramble Wine case where a pegasus pony was initially diagnosed as schizophrenic, but it was later determined that he could see the magic of the unicorns around him. And here, …usually takes the form of numbers."

"I don't see numbers." She raised a hoof, "But I do see images. Light particles that swirl like snow flurries until they snap into a shape unique to a spell. Levitation is a dodecahedron. I know the spell is ready when they snap. I can control the spell by rotating or pushing around the shape."

"You are talented."

"Don't insult—!"

"—I'm not being sarcastic. I guess for lack of a better paradigm, you invented your own. It's all very interesting.

"At the practicum, my magical misfire burnt the base of my horn, and I guess I should reiterate how grateful I am that you took me to your father when you did. He fixed something that would have left me little better than a weakling earth pony with a useless horn. But, here's the interesting part. Disconnected from my horn, I could not sense magic or see auras. In fact, I could not do math at all. But with it restored, I sensed the result of telling my horn to think for me, or better put, to calculate for me. The numeric feedback allows me to judge the results and apply transforms. I'm not sure how you would do that without numbers."

"Pretty well, actually. Have you ever heard of geometry?"

"You must practice your spells a lot, at least long enough to learn to make the shape and manipulate it effectively."

She smiled. "Practice makes perfect. I practice whenever I'm alone. That was the purpose of your classroom exercises for the stun spell; the practicum makes sure you use the spell in a realistic setting."

"Numbers are better. Take a look at this."

I bounced off the bench to the middle of the brick sidewalk. Beds of red and white geraniums lined either side. I waited until there were no ponies around and cautiously prepped a very low power Barthemule-transformed force spell. "Ready, go."

It again popped before I released it—as I said go—and with a tiny bit of inspiration, I continued to power it rather than generating an on-off bolt as I might during a fight.

A sphere slowly grew out to three times my length in radius, pushing down the geraniums in its path and causing little pink butterflies to flutter away. Through it cracked some stems, most sprung back up when inside the sphere. Sunset Shimmer reached out and touched the magical surface, jerking back her hoof as if shocked. I felt a definite buzz in my head. The surface vibrated like a rubbery balloon. I found what seemed to be the radius numbers and applied a transform. The sphere shrunk, then popped audibly.

Sunset Shimmer said, "Nice trick. A shield spell?"

"Maybe. Don't know. That's a Barthemule transform applied to a force spell. That's the second time I've cast it."

"Second— what? That's not possible."

"Ask me to cast a standard illusion." I raised a hoof. "Now, that's not possible."

Sunset Shimmer walked up to me, looked into my eyes, then glanced about my head, obviously reevaluating the double star "shaved" into the fur of my forehead, which wasn't growing back yet. She circled me, trampling the geraniums without a thought and surrounding me with their scent. She lingered on my blank flank, once on each side. "How old are you?"

"Fifteen— no, wait, I think my birthday was the day of the practicum. Guess I'm sixteen."

"You've gotta to be kidding me."

I shrugged.

"You're her age? And I suppose you read all the time?"

"Any time I get the chance and can crack a book. I'm very nice to librarians."

"You sound like the runt, but at least you do magic! I've spied on her. She talks up theories, but when it comes to practice, I've yet to see her in action. She's usually in her tower, muzzle in a book. Our paths never cross. I guess creating a crack through earth and space-time all the way to Tartarus from Canterlot University is a good enough trick to make anypony acceptable as Celestia's protégé. I don't see the point if you don't produce. She's a one-trick pony, if you ask me."

"Tartarus?" I asked.

"Yes, that Tartarus. Celestia sent me through the rift while she wrestled the runt under control. Good thing, too. Her magic-storm blew through the security perimeter and some pretty ugly monsters were escaping. Cerberus went missing for days." She described a combination of modern and stone fortifications built upon the craggy mountains in an ancient caldera—and, well, monstrous monsters. Apparently, if you could levitate a non-magical creature, you pretty much neutralized him.

I had heard of the rift. To think that little purple somewhat goth-looking foal leaving Dr. Flowing Waters' office was my age! Princess Celestia certainly knew how to pick them.

"So. Back to the bench. This time, concentrate and look at my magic until you see, uh, shapes. We'll work on turning it into numbers another day. Later, you'll teach me spell canceling..."

As if.

My half of the bargain turned out to be Sunset Shimmer finally becoming exasperated with the visualization exercise and, instead of teaching me to cancel, dragging me to a hay and herb bar for dinner—where I had a daisy and borage sandwich on Hooflyn corn rye spread with lots of horseradish mustard—followed by her drinking herself drunk and forcing me to escort her home.

It's funny how four legs aren't enough to steady a pony.

Author's Note:

Next:
Chapter 9: Theory into Practice
Sunset's talk of visiting Tartarus gives Starlight reasons to stay in Canterlot. She also casts her first healing spell.

Sunset Shimmer walked up to me, looked into my eyes, then glanced about my head, obviously reevaluating the double star "shaved" into the fur of my forehead, which wasn't growing back yet.

If you haven't taken a close look at the cover art for this novel, do that now.

Comments

[WhitewolfStormrunner]

Sunset Shimmer walked up to me, looked into my eyes, then glanced about my head, obviously reevaluating the double star "shaved" into the fur of my forehead, which wasn't growing back yet.

If you haven't taken a close look at the cover art for this novel, do that now.

If you mean the purple (magenta?) and white one on her forehead, I was wondering what that's about.

It almost reminds me a bit of Twilight's, but with a different twist to it.

[redmar]

Sunset clearly does not know how to gauge Twilight's skill. She should just ask Moondancer and she will have plenty of information and probably get irritated at Moondancer's skill too.