What Follows Hugs

by David Silver

26 - Might and Magic

Toby took over one of the classrooms. It wasn't hard. When a class wasn't being given in it, he just hopped in and it was his to do with as he pleased. The other tsuki didn't usually argue with him, except Celene.

Celene was good at arguing with him.

He looked over the tables and the stage at the front of the room, considering what would help with the demonstration. Then it hit him. "Moondancer!"

"Yes?" The named mare was just walking in with perfect timing. "I was hoping to find you."

Toby hopped up and came down facing her. "Is good see you too. Need magic for class." He waved a paw over the room. "Will show how glow, need magic for better glowing."

"Ah." Her horn began to glow softly. "I forget, reflection is the key to your magic."

"Yes, key, unlock for other tsuki." Toby seemed pleased with the comparison. He focused on the glowing of her horn and his fur began to shine softly with the same light, absorbing and reflecting the magic in a pale pink color. "Stay for class please?"

Moondancer lifted an ear. "It's almost free time, have you heard? You should be relaxing."

Toby tilted his head. "Rule is can practice magic, we practice magic. Not want practice magic?"

Moondancer stepped closer. "Nothing wrong with practicing magic, but is this what you all want to do?"

"Is what Toby wants." He bobbed his head eagerly. "Show others how glow, is good."

Moondancer sat and regarded her large friend. "Sombra has taught you all a solid work ethic." She didn't sound completely certain that was a good thing, but she didn't argue it. "If this is what you want. I'll help."

"Thank you!" He grabbed her up and hugged her firmly. Ponies were so fun to hug.

A soft thumping of a paw on the stone made him look up to see Celene looking at him oddly. Was she angry? She looked upset in some way he couldn't identify. "Hello Celene!" he eagerly greeted, putting Moondancer down. "Moondancer help teach magic, is good. Ready to learn?"

Celene cleared the space in the room in one smooth jump. "You stupid tsuki." Her attention was more focused on Moondancer. "You not. He mine. We make clear. Mine, yes?"

Moondancer was not the sharpest social tack, but she caught on quickly enough. "I assure, our interest is purely professional, and that of friends. I... have no interest in anything beyond that." She adjusted her thick glasses nervously. "Are you ready for the class?"

Celene sat back on her haunches. "Class?" She looked to Toby. "Not teach me?"

Toby looked confused. "Yes teach. Teach magic, how glow."

Celene waved a paw at all the seats. "No need class teach me."

The same jack tsuki that had first asked poked his head into the class. "Found him! Toby here!" He was pushed into the classroom by other eager tsuki, half-filling the room with bright eyes and excited little whispers.

Toby tapped his paws together with the soft puff of padded fur. "Other tsuki want learn, will teach."

Celene showed several emotions that Toby struggled to grasp. He was fairly certain she was upset about something. "Said is date! Toby! Is impossible."

Moondancer cleared her throat into a hoof. "Celene?"

"What?" She darted her head to face Moondancer, looking all the more agitated.

"Can we... talk? Mare to doe?" She gestured away with her horn and walked towards a corner of the room.

Celene hesitated, but easily made up the distance with a bounce. "What want?"

Moondancer moved a hoof up and down. "Quietly. Look, I know what you were trying to do, but Toby is anything but subtle. If you wanted to be alone, you have to say that. Did you tell him it would be alone?"

Celene thought back to when they had set the date. "Not... say that..." She sank to the ground. "Stupid Celene."

"Not stupid," countered Moondancer even as a blush formed. She was starting to sound like them. "Stay. You'll hurt his feelings otherwise. He wants to do good, by you, by them." She glanced up at the waiting classroom. "Pay attention and try your best. It'll impress him."

Celene's expression brightened. "Think work? Okay! Celene watch and learn. She will be first to glow in class."

Toby watched the two females talk quietly, and saw Celene seem to cheer up, which made him smile. She was cuter when she was smiling. He felt warmth in his cheeks. He never worried much about how cute a female was, and there he was, casually doing it. Celene made him feel funny, but he still wanted more of it. He wondered if other tsuki got so confused about things like that. "Class, is ready learn?"

The response was a unified call of excitement, many furry bodies bouncing in place before settling down with a wave of settling floppy ears, all eyes on Toby and Moondancer. He smiled at them all. "Is good. Tsuki magic is special, not like pony magic. Moondancer know magic, show."

Moondancer dipped her head towards the class and shed light from her horn. She spied an extra bit of chalk just laying there and grabbed it in her magic, making it float about the room in a demonstration of basic unicorn magic.

"Pony magic come from horn." Toby pointed at the glowing horn. "Tsuki magic come from everything else!" He reared up just to spread his paws widely as if to encompass the world. "Not inside, outside. We ref... um..." He frowned, that word liked to escape him. "Make magic bounce!" The class seemed to grasp that concept. Bouncing was a thing they did. "Magic bump us, we bounce it back."

Things grew quiet as Toby began to glow, echoing Moondancer's glow as if he were a mirror. The patterns of the glow even changed when he turned or she moved, as if he were made of glass and were reflecting the magic. "Is magic of tsuki. Is magic of you! With practice, do more, but glow is start." He showed off a little, taking the glow and drawing it up into his hand. He bounced it from one paw to the other, playing with the mote of power before he grabbed it on the way down and it exploded across his form, glowing evenly a moment before it settled back into its reflection. "Practice."

The class did just that, eagerly trying to reflect Moondancer's glow as Toby had done.

One spot of light shone long before the others. Celene was shimmering, not just with Moondancer's glow, but with other hues that danced along her pelt. Her eyes were on Toby quite directly. "Look, is working. I work hard."

Toby clapped his paws together eagerly. "Is good! How learn so fast? Take Toby... long time get right."

Moondancer coyly smiled, but kept her thoughts to herself.

"Practice hard..." Celene stepped closer, shedding many lights off the walls with her approach. "Want Toby show how do more." She leaned in and nuzzled his ear, whispering into it, "Alone."

Toby felt a burning heat rage through his cheeks. It was a simple request, why was he feeling that way?

The class knew better than Toby, bursting into cheers and cat calls from students of either gender. They clearly knew what was happening, and were cheering it on.

"Um, alone, yes... Have finish class, yes?" He glanced up at the cheering classroom. "Is good, Celene. You good student." He reached and pat her right on the head as so many others had done to him when he did well. "Good tsuki. I is very proud." Oh, how sweet it was. He had made her blush for a change. He hadn't expected it to feel so nice, but warmth in his core echoed the warmth in her cheeks. He had done something right, he decided.

Moondancer smiled brightly at the two of them. "Celene, if you're feeling up for it, I'm sure Toby would appreciate if you could help instruct the class. Two tsuki that know how to glow can more easily demonstrate the process."

Celene shook her head a little. "She use big word, but is not wrong. Celene will help the class, help Toby." She bumped against him before bouncing up into the class to give a helping paw.

---

Sombra nodded at Quick Stroke. The gesture was returned and both stallions snapped into a battle stance, bodies tense and horns crackling with dark magic.

Many tsuki gawked at the two. One whispered to another. "They fight? Not happy?"

"Fight, because happy."

"How that work?"

"Shhh. Watch!"

Quick Stroke lunged forward with a sword of magic that Sombra met with a horn and turned aside just as grasping shadow claws emerged from the stone to grab at Quick, but Quick was already leaping out of the way of it. "Excellent attempt, sir."

Sombra smiled. It had been some time since he had a proper spar. "You have seen nothing, yet." Darkness rolled off of his armored form in all directions, dimming the lights.

"You shant intimidate me with a little shade, m'lord. You know where I lived." He flicked his head, a ball of green-purple magic angrily simmering just in front of it. "And I have learned a few... tricks."

A single mote? Sombra felt he could laugh, but instead focused on turning the darkness towards Quick. It would not be as easy to dodge what was already all around him. The dark itself folded into sharpened points, collapsing towards the cocky unicorn.

It did not remain a single mote. With a turn, it became two, then four, then eight. By the time Quick was facing away from him, there was a line of them, and he lashed out his hooves in a great buck, sending them flying with the angry shrieking of the damned. His moment of glory was short-lived as a needle-sharp but nigh-invisible folded bit of shadow bit into his side.

Sombra ducked beneath one and rolled past another, but there were too many, and they seemed to hunger for him specifically. With a dull grunt, he took the fourth to his chest. "An impressive trick, but it lacks punch."

Quick brushed the folded shadow away. "Neither of us wish to truly harm the other, I should think, m'lord. A cunning strike. Shall we continue?"

"We shall."

Some tsuki fled the display of shadow magic, but more joined the crowd, gaping at the fierce exchange of combat magic between the two unicorns. One tsuki watched them quite intensely, eager to show a trick he had just learned. He focused as hard as he could, and it happened.

He began to glow with the greens and purples of their magic. The glows danced and wobbled with their spells and their dodges. Each time one made a movement, the glows struggled to keep up. He was not as practiced as Toby, the glows more like rough blobs in the vague direction of the combatants, rather than precise reflections.

Quick smirked at the show. "I should wonder." He formed a fiery ball of angry shadow magic between his hooves. "Catch!" He flung it at the shining tsuki without a moment of delay.

The Tsuki was too busy focusing on his new trick, unaware of the angry magic approaching him. All of the others around him fled with strong bounces, leaving him alone to face the attack.

Sombra hesitated in his moment, watching the ball approach his helpless subject, but it was too far. He couldn't do much to prevent it but grit his teeth.

It struck the tsuki and he squealed in surprised pain, but the ball bounced off the rough patch of reflection, not harming him nearly as much as it could have.

The reflected ball struck Sombra in the shoulder in an instant, catching him by surprise.

Quick looked deeply amused by the whole thing. "Your subjects do have their uses, m'lord."

Author's Note:

Lessons are learned by many today, I think. This story won the vote for bonus chapter on the patreon, so everyone gets to enjoy another chapter!

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Comments

[Booster Spice]

Quick uses Tommy Gun. Its Effective.

Hes a Pinball wizzzard.

[tsaukpaetra]

Tsuki are great wobbufet moon rabbits!
Is it sad that Moondancer's the one giving relationship advice? She's just full of usefulness!
Keep going! ;)