The Science of Magic

by cammerhammer

Chapter Six - Pup Tents Are Pure Evil

It's been a long time since I had a change of scenery. Let's see what I have to work with.

Hmm. Not as powerful or as adept at magic. More impulsive, though. I like that in a pony. Creative. Unorthodox. Stubborn. Oooh, you are going to be fun to break.

You seem to have an uncanny knowledge of the relationship of harmony and disharmony. You are a rare one, aren't you? It's nice to know I have picked such a unique host this time around. I can't wait to get started in on you.

---

Leyline Tracer glanced from his spellbook to the light blue unicorn filly that had just trotted through the door. He could see her scanning the classroom, looking for a good desk. He breathed out a sigh of relief as her gaze passed him without stopping, only to stiffen as she looked back to him and gave a curious tilt to her head. His silent pleadings went unheeded as she trotted to a desk next to him and levitated her saddlebags to the ground before hopping into the seat and turning to ask him the same question everypony else asked him today.

“Did you get lost or something?”

“No, why?”

“This is Nocturne’s School for Gifted Unicorns and you’re an earth pony!”

“Yeah, so?”

“How can you practice magic if you can’t even do it?”

“Who says I can’t study magic for the sake of learning about it? Even if I can’t actually do the spells I want to know how they work.”

“But that doesn’t explain how they even let you join the school.”

“I convinced Prince Nocturne to let me take some classes.”

She narrowed her slate grey eyes at him. “How?”

“I showed him a spell I made that controls a quill to write down everything you say.”

“Oh, that’s cool. What’s your special talent?” He sighed as she glanced to his flank, the only thing there being his brown coat. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were a blank flank.”

“It’s alright. It’s not your fault. It’s kind of hard to get a cutie mark as an earth pony when you only like studying magic.”

“I think I can understand why.” She giggled as he gave an exasperated sigh. “You’re pretty cool for an earth pony. What’s your name?”

He quirked his head. Usually unicorns would have stopped talking to him by this point. “Leyline Tracer. What’s yours?”

“Dulcet Tones.”

“What do you like to do?”

She turned her flank to him, gesturing to her cutie mark. A trio of musical notes with lines over them was there. “I love singing. If my parents didn’t insist on me learning advanced magic, I would be in music class right now.” She sighed dreamily at the thought. "I hate studying for this class."

“Come on, magic isn’t so bad.”

“It’s hard! It has all these stupid rules and I can never understand what the teachers are talking about.”

Dulcet’s head met the desktop with a resounding thud, mumbling something unintelligible to the wood panel.

“You know, I could help you study,” Leyline began hesitantly.

She turned her head to respond, her long, dark red mane obscuring most of her face. “What would you know about advanced magic?”

He couldn’t help the large grin that spread across his face. “Oh, this and that...”

---

Lyra was jolted awake by the chariot wheels roughly hitting the ground. She yawned and stretched as she blinked the gunk out of her eyes. Well, that was an odd dream. She looked over to see Twilight give her a disgruntled look before hopping off the chariot. Lyra levitated her saddlebags to her back, quickly following suit.

"Did you have a good nap?"

"Yeah, I did. It's nice to sleep without nightmares." Lyra shook her head to clear out the lingering memories of her dream before continuing. "So, what do we do from here?"

Twilight pulled a map from her bags, unfolding it until the parchment fully blocked her from Lyra's view. "Well, the castle is due south of here but we won't be able to take a direct route because there are some natural and magical obstacles between here and there. I'm estimating it will take today and most of tomorrow to get to the castle. When we free Princess Luna, she should be able to teleport us directly back to Canterlot."

"Sounds like fun. Let's get going." Lyra cast a wistful stare at the chariot as it shrunk in the distance before following her purple companion into the forest.

---

Bon Bon knocked on the door to the library, her search for Lyra only turning up information that the unicorn was last seen with Twilight Sparkle. She waited for a minute, her patience gradually eroding as she waited for an answer.

As she was about to deliver a much harder knock, Spike opened the door to receive a hoof to the face.

"Ow! Hey, not cool!"

"Spike, I'm looking for Lyra. Have you seen her anywhere?"

The dragon grumbled as he rubbed the spot Bon Bon’s hoof hit him. "Yeah, she and Twilight went to Canterlot a couple days ago."

"Canterlot? Why?"

"I think they broke their magic, so they went to ask Princess Celestia for help."

"When are they going to be back?"

"I got a letter this morning that said they weren't going to be back for at least a few more days."

Spike stopped as he noticed Bon Bon's expression. If he were older, he would have most likely attributed the word "rictus" to the disturbing grin that spread across the mare's face. As it was, he decided that face was the most terrifying thing he had seen since the last time Twilight had a mental breakdown.

"Thank you for your help, Spike."

"You're welcome." Bon Bon suddenly whirled around and started marching away from the library. "Hey, where are you going?"

Bon Bon paused, throwing a single word over her shoulder: "Packing."

---

"Just admit it, Twilight, we are lost."

"We aren't lost! It's just taking awhile for me to get my bearings in here!"

Lyra was reclining on a nearby rock while Twilight levitated a compass and a map in front of her face, rotating the map every few seconds as though it would help her figure out where she was. Personally, Lyra was glad that Twilight had stopped to get her bearings twenty minutes ago. They had spent the last eight hours battling the plant life of the Everfree Forest, sometimes literally. She had no idea that Venus fly traps could grow that large and was positive that they had passed through this clearing twice in the last hour. On top of that, Twilight was starting to develop an unnerving twitch in her left eye.

"Why don't we just stop here for today? We can figure out where we are in the morning."

"You don't understand, though! This will throw us off the schedule I wrote! We are already behind and if we stop for tonight we will have to delay rescuing Luna an entire day!"

Lyra yawned and shot Twilight a blank stare. "Twilight, I'm pretty sure that adventures laugh at your puny schedules. Besides, I'm not moving until I feel like I'm rested enough to continue."

"My schedules are NOT puny!"

"Tell that to the Everfree."

"Fine. But we are getting up early in the morning to make up for lost time."

Lyra rolled her eyes and ignored Twilight's fretting as she unpacked her tent. "Okay, you cretinous piece of fabric, are you going to behave?" She swiftly unrolled the canvas and laid it flat near the center of the clearing. With practiced ease, she snapped together the fiberglass poles and threaded them through the loops in the fabric.

"So far, so good." Lyra sweated nervously as she slotted the first pole into place at the corners. "Almost there..." She pushed the second pole into place, popping the tent into shape. "Yes!"

With a resounding thwap! the tent violently deconstructed, one of the poles embedding itself in a nearby tree. "Oh, come on!" Lyra swiftly rounded up the poles, shoving them into place only to have the tent once again reject any attempts to give it structure with extreme prejudice.

"Why—" wap! "—won't you—" fwap! "—stay—" whack! "—standing—" fwick! "—UP! Ouch!" Lyra shouted as a pole whipped itself across her face, leaving a huge welt on her cheek.

After several profanity-laden minutes, the obstinate tent stood, albeit lopsided, under its own power. Lyra turned, finally satisfied, to see a full campsite set up just opposite her tent, complete with a blazing campfire.

"How. How is this possible?! How did you set up so fast?"

Twilight pulled a book out of her saddlebags and gestured to it. "I got a book: Camping: 101 Things You Wanted to Know but Were Afraid to Ask. I have the author's entire how-to collection."

Lyra gaped for a minute then hung her head, defeated. "Whatever. Do you have any marshmallows?"

"Of course!" Twilight levitated a large bag of the gooey confections up for her to see. "I don't have any roasting forks, though. What are we supposed to do?"

Lyra produced a small folding knife from her bags and trotted to the edge of the clearing, cutting a couple switches from the nearest tree. Making quick work with the knife, she soon whittled the ends down to points and levitated one to Twilight.

"Thanks."

"Mm-hmm." The two mares sat in silence, watching the campfire blaze merrily as their respective marshmallows browned to perfection.

"So."

"So how's life treating you?" Lyra ventured awkwardly.

"Good."

"That's good."

"Yeah." The campfire continued to burn, oblivious to the awkward silence that pervaded the air.

"Do you have your lyre with you?" Twilight asked.

Lyra snorted. "I never leave home without it. Why? Do you want to make a request?"

"Nothing specific. I just think it would be nice to hear some music."

"Sounds good to me." Lyra pulled her namesake out of her saddlebags and held it deftly in her hooves. Twilight gave her an odd look. "What?"

"Aren't you going to use your magic to play it?"

Lyra looked mortified at the suggestion. "Why would I do that? When you use magic to play any instrument, it sounds lifeless and boring."

"And that brings to mind something else. How do you get more than seven notes out of a lyre? There aren't frets to get more notes out of the instrument."

Lyra levitated the lyre out of her hooves and trotted closer to Twilight. "Normally you can't get more notes out of a lyre. They are meant to accompany spoken word and nothing more. However, I found out you can use your hooves to create a fret along the back of the string to get different notes." She lifted her hoof to Twilight, who noticed tiny grooves along the edges of the appendage.

"Oh, I understand now. You use your hoof as a—"

At that moment, Lyra's tent decided that it was too much of a burden to remain upright and made up for lost time by vehemently relieving itself of its structural support, flinging its poles away with great vigor. Lyra jumped up and rounded up the poles once more, shouting terrible curses and threats to the disobedient shelter. Twilight watched as the minty unicorn continued to verbally assault the tent, roughly jamming the poles back into their respective positions. She stopped for a moment to catch her breath for which the tent was eternally grateful.

In the moment between Lyra's tirades, Twilight heard a rustling in the bushes. "Lyra?"

"—and your father was a flag pole, except your mother cheated on him with an even uglier flag pole and eleven months later, you were born!"

"Lyra?"

"—if you weren't such a failure at providing basic shelter it would almost be—"

"Lyra?!"

"What, Twilight? Can't you see I'm—" Lyra's rebuttal was cut short as she realized Twilight was gesturing to an extremely large something that was just within the light of the campfire."Twilight? What is that?"

In response, the thing growled and leaped at Lyra. The unicorn shrieked and watched as the huge beast arced its way towards her, too fast to react.

Inches before Lyra's face, a purple barrier sprang to life and stopped the creature like a brick wall. As the animal sagged, stunned, against the forcefield, Lyra took in the sight of the odd creature.

It started with the head and forelegs of a lion, fading into the torso and hind legs of a goat. The tail was a snake, complete with a hissing head at the very end.

"That would be a chimera, Lyra," Twilight responded, horn aglow and sweat running down her face from the sudden exertion of throwing a protective barrier around the campsite.

The green unicorn shuffled backwards, trying to put as much distance between herself and the chimera as possible. The beast staggered to its feet and roared at the forcefield. It drew in a deep breath and breathed a gout of fire at the wall. Lyra yelped as the ball of fire rolled towards her only for the rolling conflagration to part at the protective bubble. Twilight winced, the strain showing as she pushed to keep the flames outside the bubble.

"Twilight, please tell me you are going to be able to hold that thing outside the bubble?"

"I don't know."

"That isn't reassuring at all!"

The chimera stopped and examined the protective wall for a bit, the snake head on its tail striking the barrier to no avail. The two unicorns sighed in relief as the chimera took a step backwards. Their relief was short-lived, though, as the beast reared back on its goat hooves and brought its claws down on the bubble. Lyra could feel the magical feedback as the beast disrupted the spell and Twilight sank to the ground, unconscious, as the forcefield dissipated.

"Twilight, now isn't a good time to be napping!" Lyra shouted, shaking the passed-out mare forcefully in a vain attempt to wake her up. Another roar from the beast commanded the unicorn's attention as she tried to stand her ground and protect Twilight.

"Horseapples." Think, think, think! Come on, Lyra, remember what Celestia taught you! Come up with a plan of attack and follow through with it. I need to get this thing away from Twilight.

The unicorn quickly scanned her surroundings, looking for something to distract the chimera as it prepared to move in for the killing blow. Frantically, she levitated a small stone from the campfire ring and launched it at the beast.

The chimera gave a bleat of pain and rage as the smell of burning fur and flesh permeated the air. The mint green unicorn gave a small gulp as she realized her plan had worked and she now had the full attention of a wounded, angry animal that was probably hungry and definitely was holding a grudge against her now.

“Double horseapples.”

It charged at Lyra blindly and she dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding an encounter with its fangs. As she congratulated herself for her avoidance skills, she felt the snake head whip by her ear, barely missing her face as it struck at her.

Stupid! I'm going to get myself killed at this rate! Grabbing blindly with her telekinesis, she found purchase on her trusty lyre and gave a resounding blow to the serpent head, sending it flying until it cracked like a whip at the end of the chimera tail.

The lion head stopped abruptly and winced as the snake head stretched out its tail fully. The chimera stopped to give the immobile snake head a curious sniff. When the serpent didn't respond, the lion head loosed an earth-shaking roar and hurled a fiery breath Lyra's direction. The unicorn yelped again and darted away from the orange glow, stopping to catch her breath.

Lyra knew that the encounter was quickly coming to a close and that it wasn't going to end well in her favor. She wondered if she could possibly use her borrowed Discordian magic to turn the tides.

She searched through her magical psyche for hints of the chaotic power to no avail. Apparently Celestia's binding spell was more effective than either of them had thought. Frantically, she rifled through her leylines, dimly aware of the chimera's approach as it appeared to move in slow motion.

As she was about to give up, she found a loose thread of chaos. Upon examining it, Lyra realized that she could use it. There were two problems with that, though. She had no idea what would happen if she used it and doing so would break the binding spell.

Steeling herself, she reached her mind out to the thread to pull it and felt her shoulder explode in pain. She snapped out of it to find that she had let the chimera reach her and deliver a swipe to her shoulder, laying her flesh open in four ragged wounds. The animal was standing over her, ready to end it with a swift bite to her throat.

Well, that's it, then. Sorry, Twilight. Lyra squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the final blow.

As the chimera opened its mouth, Lyra's tent decided to offer its own humble opinion on the turn of events that had transpired. Both support poles swiftly released from their moorings, experiencing the thrill of flight once more. One pole soared straight into the chimera's waiting maw, sending the beast tumbling back into a bush.

Lyra heard the commotion and opened her eyes to see the beast scrambling to pull the obstinate pole from its throat and free itself from the bush. Rising unsteadily on three legs, she limped away, feeling a fresh surge of energy from an adrenaline rush.

The chimera eventually righted itself and spat out the offending tent pole. The sheer fury that pervaded the creature's mind was more than enough to focus its sight totally on the escaping mare. It charged once more, determined to turn the puny pony that had dared to cause it so much trouble into a pile of fleshy shreds.

"Lyra! Duck!" In the obscure fog of ensuing blood loss, Lyra dimly heard the warning and promptly decided to introduce her face to the ground.

The inside of her eyelids lit to a bright red, and she heard the sound of a stunned animal crashing into the underbrush. She blearily cast a glance to the approaching hoofsteps. A smear of purple filled her view, and Twilight's voice faintly came through.

"Lyra, are you awake? Can you hear me?"

"It's about time you woke up. I could have used your help." Lyra gave a weak laugh and promptly passed out.

Comments

[cammerhammer]

I'm so sorry for not getting this done sooner. Please lambast me for my tardiness.

[Static Shock]

1414906

Alas, the long-awaited chapter has finally landed! Let it be known that no longer shall my brain be depraved of that which is has so long desired! Glory to the author who has bestowed upon us yet another work of art, indeed!

Now, begone with you, back to yonder tools of writing!

Sorry. I just felt that the way you wrote that comment kind of required a reply such as this one.

[Travolore]

And Lyra talked smack about that tent! Tisk! Tisk! Good story I must say and don't go to hard on yourself for not updating quickly. Let it come at it's own pace.

[DerpedRainbow]

Lyra produced a small folding knife from her bags

Aside from bread and woodwork I see no reason for a pony to have knives.

[fredsite]

Oh, tents. You can't live with them, but you can't live without them! And Lyra ranting at the tent, calling it the child of two ugly flagpoles? Wow, that was a real low blow man. That poor tent must be crying in a corner now (of course with the poles sticking out of the walls).

[SliverBrony]

3223906 and what about cutting vegtables or cake, that would be pretty hard without knives, besides what other reasons do you have for owning knive(s), other than cooking, collecting and woodwork?

"I don't have any roasting forks, though. What are we supposed to do?"

How about using your levitation?

[Sr Face Tear]

3738884

How about using your levitation?

That's not what it says in the book, (at least I highly doubt that that's what it says), and I think Twilight would want to do it by the book.