Old Friends

by awesomesauce4

Chapter 3

Sam walked through the dripping caverns, a glimmering red crystal giving off soft crimson light as he held it at the ready. A white box with a red cross over it bounced against his leg, held up by his jean strap. He didn’t quite remember why, but he felt a sense of… guilt. What had he done? Sam tried to remember, but came up with nothing as he walked onward, the blindingly white path below him illuminated by the orange-yellow torches above. He found his way to an exit, and stepped into the darkness, his only source of light now the crystal he was holding in his black-and-white-sleeved hand. As the red sphere of visibility passed over rocks, throwing them into bloodred shadows, he noticed another cave exit to the side of the tunnel he was currently going down. Curious, he peeked inside. The tunnel there was so narrow that he would have to turn sideways to pass, and yet… It sloped up. Up was good, up meant freedom. Therefore, he should at least check it out. He began slowly, cautiously making his way through the jagged, narrow path, edging around the sharp corners and bends and occasionally scraping his torso against the wet rock. Finally, after what felt like a lifetime of careful movement, he emerged out the other side to find… a closed room. There was no further path to follow. He cast his crystal’s light on the walls, and was surprised to find that someone had written there. Or rather… drawn. Hearts were everywhere, hundreds of them carved into the wall and ceiling and floor and even the stalagmites on the ground. Interspersed with these were occasional drawings of some stick figures, and Sam looked closer at these. One appeared to be a horse-like creature, with a long, crooked something jutting out of its forehead. It appeared to be smiling with glee, and standing on top of a different horse-thing that was shorter, and had what appeared to be an asterisk cut into its hind leg. The horse-thing that was being stood upon had crossed-out eyes – evidently, it was meant to be dead. Sam looked away, confused and slightly afraid. He found another drawing, this time of the crooked-horn thing from earlier next to a different horse-thing, which was smiling as well and not dead. Written above and below the inscription were the words “Just Married,” and Sam noticed that the crooked-horned one had some kind of dress on… a wedding dress. He gulped nervously. Looking around, he noticed that the hearts weren’t the only thing that were repeatedly carved into the rock. The words “LOVE ME” were everywhere, and Sam felt a distinct twinge of panic as he looked around at this. He needed to leave. Now. He made to find the exit, only to find that something had blocked the way, wandering around in a dazed pattern as it muttered and chittered quietly to itself. Sam took a step back, and it heard this, freezing in place. Slowly, it turned to look at him. The last thing Sam saw were two brilliant green eyes, looking as though something had fractured behind them.

Sam woke up with a muffled cry, bolting upright. A cold sweat had broken out all over his body, and the pillow and sheets were unpleasantly damp. “Jesus…” Sam breathed, panting slightly. He hadn’t had a nightmare in a very long time. A thought occurred to him, and he got up, hurriedly crossing the room to pick up a quill, bottle of ink, and a sheet of parchment. Before he could forget, he wrote down as much of the dream as he could remember, which was quite a bit – that dream had felt real. It took him a half hour to describe everything he had seen, and even then he felt as though he had forgotten a few things. Sam considered what he knew about dreams – or rather, what Jeremy had found out when he briefly looked it up. Dreams were supposed to be a collage of stitched-together memories, objects and faces, as random neurons fired while the brain was unconscious to create the world of the dream and distract the brain from its background processes. But this might not be the case here. Here in Equestria, dreams could actually occupy their own world, or involve conscious thought. Wouldn’t Princess Luna know about that? Sam resolved to ask her as soon as he could.

He got up again and stepped outside, standing on the entrance to the staircase as he looked out at Canterlot. The sun had not yet risen, and the stars were still twinkling overhead.

“Oh, hey. Pretty, isn’t it?” a voice called from his left, and he looked over to find Brayden watching as well.

“How long did you sleep?” Sam asked in concern, and Brayden shrugged.

“I got into the habit of waking up real early. Like, 5 in the morning early. I was gonna go for a run, but… I remembered Celestia might not want us to run around the city.”

Sam sighed. “Yeah… I just had a really weird dream, and I couldn’t get back to sleep.”

Brayden looked at him quizzically. “You know… weird dreams in fantasy stories are typically some kind of premonition. Did you write it down?” he asked, and Sam chuckled.

“Yeah, I did. I know that much, Brayden, come on. I’ve listened to Avery for longer than five minutes.”

Brayden laughed softly as well. “Heh. Yeah, that would tend to do it. What was the dream about?” he inquired.

Sam quickly explained, and Brayden’s eyebrows went higher and higher as he described the strange, dripping caves. By the time Sam had finished, the sun had risen to take the moon’s place, and things were slowly waking up out in Canterlot, ponies beginning to trickle into the city.

“So this place was underground, huh?” he asked, and Sam shrugged.

“It felt like it. In the dream, I definitely felt like I wanted to go up, so I might have been trying to reach the surface?”

Brayden considered this. “Hmm. If I remember my dream symbolism right, that means you’ve fallen from grace, and want to return to what you were before.”

Sam raised an eyebrow at him. “…Is dream symbolism a thing here?” he asked, and Brayden shrugged.

“Nick would know that better than we do,” he reminded Sam, who merely sighed in response. “Anyway, that red crystal you said you were holding. Why do you think you were holding it?” Brayden wondered.

“I think it was some kind of flashlight at that moment… it gave off light. Red light. But also… it was pretty sharp. I think it might have been meant… as some kind of weapon?” Sam mused.

“G’morning, guys. What’s a kind of weapon?” Cory asked curiously, walking down the spiral staircase to meet them. Sam quickly recapped, and Cory shrugged in response. “Dreams… aren’t really my thing. The only thing I know about them is that they’re really abstract and meaningless? Anyway, I’m heading out to get breakfast, it’s 10 AM according to my phone,” Cory informed them.

“Oh, shoot, we should do that too,” Sam realized.

“Maybe we can catch Luna while we’re there, and ask her?” Brayden hoped.

“Sounds like a plan,” Sam agreed, and the three of them set off.

To their surprise, Luna was not only at the cafeteria, she was waiting for them. “Come with me,” she ordered as soon as she spotted Sam.

“Can we come?” Cory asked.

“If you wish. I would suggest that you break your fast first, though, as this concerns Sam only,” Luna answered.

Cory looked between the tables and Sam with indecision, and Brayden chuckled. “Come on, Cory. Sam can fill us in later.” Sam waved goodbye to the two of them as Luna glanced impatiently at him.

They reached the throne room, where Celestia was curiously absent, and crossed to the left, traveling up a series of stairs before they stopped in front of a door with a single crescent moon on it, two Royal Guards saluting as they saw Luna stop in front of it. “My chambers,” she explained, pushing open the door.

The first thing Sam noticed about Luna’s room was the bed. It was shaped like a giant crescent moon, with the actual bedspread in the center of the lower curve. The sheet was a dark purple, and the pillows were an equally dark blue, made of what appeared to be a metallic-colored fabric. Apart from the fancy bed, the rest of the room was sparse: Only a bathroom, desk and dresser greeted Sam’s vision, looking as pristine as though they had just been moved in.

“I recorded your dreams on this night, human Sam. What I found upon doing so was… most interesting.” She crossed to the desk, horn lighting as a small, octahedral blue crystal began to glow with an inner light. To Sam’s shock, a beam of light shot out of it, playing scenes on the wall like a projector. He watched as his dream replayed, looking fuzzy and indistinct except for all but a few areas.

“Why is the… uh… ‘quality’ so low?” Sam asked.

Luna raised an eyebrow. “In dreams, nothing is distinct except that which you are focusing your attention on. You’ll notice that the crystal in your dream self’s hands is perfectly distinct compared to its surroundings, because your dream self kept looking at it.”

Sam nodded, intrigued. “Okay, so… I wrote down what I could remember of this, and discussed it with Brayden and Cory. Do you think this… is some kind of foresight? Something that’ll happen in the future?” he asked.

Luna shook her head. “Not the future, no. The present. That corridor is well-known to me, I traversed it quite often. It is one of the many paths one may encounter in Tartarus. And from what I can tell from my limited glimpses of the figure in the dream, t’was not you down there.”

Sam paled as he realized the implications of this. “So, what, there’s another human trapped down there?” he asked, voice going up an octave.

Luna hummed in thought, concerned. “If so, they should be safe provided they do not stray off the main paths. Even inside the Prison, prisoners are still secured. Though, judging by the ending of that dream, they may have already paid the price of curiosity,” Luna noted forlornly.

“Who… who was that, at the end?” Sam asked, worried.

“Queen Chrysalis. Before she was captured, she was one of the most dangerous threats to the nation. Cunning, deceptive, and with the ability to shapeshift, she led her changelings to invade our kingdom twice. From what I hear of their new leader Thorax, she was also responsible for fostering an attitude of deep mistrust and hatred between our two races. Of the few prisoners that are currently trapped down there, she is one of the two – one of the few I would not believe can be reformed,” Luna hastily corrected herself.

Sam chose to ignore that particular Freudian slip. “So… what happened after she was captured? You implied something about her changed,” he commented.

Luna sighed. “She… she has gone completely insane. You saw the carvings around her chamber – those were all her work. She’s lost in memories, unable to even recognize her tormentors anymore. We do not know quite how it happened, but… she is no longer of much threat to anyone.”

Sam swallowed nervously. “S-so the human in there could have survived, r-right? If she’s not much of a threat?” he hoped aloud.

Luna looked at him. “I would indeed hope so, but… without the ability to open Tartarus, we are left unable to find out. Do not worry, human Sam. Harmony would never let those she summoned come to such harm.”

Sam raised an eyebrow. “What do you know about Harmony?” he asked curiously.

Luna shrugged. “As little as everypony else. She was an incredibly reclusive alicorn even when she was alive – as might be expected, given that everything she has ever said or done has been documented in some fashion, and told, and retold... What we do know is that she was, by all accounts, a very friendly and helpful being to those she met, never once begrudging anypony anything.”

Sam hummed thoughtfully. “You said Harmony created the original Tartarus?” he asked.

Luna nodded. “The modern Tartarus is built directly over the older version, with additional protocols in place to keep subjects from leaving. We used to host a tour, every now and then… at least, according to my sister, we did. Lately, though, it seems she has been keeping the work done there a bit more secret.” Sam didn’t even have to remember her conversation with Celestia from earlier to recognize the unmistakable note of bitterness in her voice.

“Well… she probably has a good reason. It is a prison, after all,” he tried to reassure her.

Luna rolled her eyes. “We Equestrians pride ourselves on the transparency of our operations, Sam. Our prisons are one of our least secretive areas.”

Sam raised an eyebrow. “Really? Huh. That’s… nice,” he replied uncertainly.

“Indeed,” Luna agreed, evidently bored. “Away to breakfast with you, human Sam. I will discuss this event with my sister.” Feeling as though he’d failed some sort of test, Sam quickly bade her goodbye and made for breakfast.

A while later, the six humans were sitting at the gargantuan dining hall table, finishing off their breakfast. Sam was explaining all that had transpired in the last six hours.

“...And that’s what happened,” he finished recapping.

“Jeez, she’s as cold as ever, huh?” Nick quipped.

Sam shrugged. “I… I dunno. I probably should have said better stuff?”

Brayden patted him on the shoulder. “No sense worrying about it now. So… what do we do today?” he asked.

Sam shrugged. “Go find Celestia, and… plan out a friendship lesson?” With no other suggestions, they packed up their plates and left to do just that.

To their surprise, they found Celestia and a gaggle of other ponies waiting for them in the throne room. “Ah! Speaking of which, here they come now,” Celestia introduced, motioning them over. “Sam, these are some of Twilight Sparkle’s friends, with most being former Elements of Harmony. Our lone exception is Starlight Glimmer-“ here a pale lavender unicorn with curly hair that looked suspiciously similar to Twilight waved, blushing slightly at being called out.

“Applejack, the Element of Honesty,” Celestia continued, and the orange cowpony took a short bow.

“Rainbow Dash, the Element of Loyalty,” to which the cyan, rainbow-maned pegasus in question did a loop-de-loop in the air faster than Sam could blink.

“Pinkie Pie, the Element of Laughter,” the pink earth pony smiled and waved enthusiastically, her hair bouncing as though made of more air than substance.

“Rarity Belle, the Element of Generosity –“

“Oh, please, just Rarity is quite alright,” the white unicorn introduced amiably.

“-who prefers to be known by her forename only,” Celestia finished with a small smile.

“And, finally, we have Fluttershy, the Element of Kindness.” Fluttershy, true to form, was hiding behind Rainbow Dash.

“Come on out, Shy, they’re not gonna hurt’cha,” Applejack cajoled.

“They’re like bears but less fuzzy and more grabby!” Fluttershy whimpered in fear.

“Hey! I’ll have you know that my hair is the fuzziest hair in existence!” Sam pretended to complain, shooting a smile at her once he caught her eye.

Despite herself, Fluttershy’s mouth quirked upward in a smile. “What… are you?” she asked.

“They are humans, Fluttershy. Beings similar to those Twilight encountered in Star Swirl’s Mirror, though less… colorful,” Celestia noted, glancing at them.

“Oh, my… Twilight never said they were so tall…” Fluttershy noted.

Sam took a seat on the floor. “Better?” he asked, now roughly at eye level with Fluttershy.

“B-better,” she agreed.

“So, these are our replacements? Seems odd that Harmony would send humans to protect a world of ponies, but… I guess I can’t complain?” Starlight wondered.

Celestia tittered. “They’re not permanent replacements, Starlight. Just… apprentices. They will protect their own world in due course, and leave us to ours.”

Starlight nodded understandingly. “Alright! So… when do we get started?” she asked.

“Today, I will ask you to acquaint yourself with these six humans, as well as Twilight has… speaking of which, has anypony seen Twilight?” Celestia asked curiously, looking around.

Applejack shrugged. “We thought she was with you, Princess Celestia,” the cowpony answered bluntly.

“Hmm. I’ll look around for her. Anyway, humans, your assignment for today is to befriend your respective Elements, and learn from them what it means to embody those Elements of Harmony,” Celestia declared.

“O…kay…?” Sam hesitantly agreed, looking curiously at Starlight, who returned his gaze.

“Good luck!” Celestia finished, already heading out the door.

“So… what do you humans like to do for fun?” Starlight asked awkwardly when she was gone.

“Uh… mostly computer stuff… do you… know what a computer is?” Sam replied.

Starlight shook her head. “No, but I’m willing to find out,” she answered, giving him a smile.

A while later, the humans and ponies were playing a few computer games on their respective laptops, phones, and other such electronic devices. Sam was teaching Starlight the intricacies of Final Fantasy, while Rarity and Fluttershy fascinated themselves with Cory’s music player. Applejack, Brayden and Rainbow Dash were discussing sports, with Brayden showing off photos of himself and his team from prior football matches. Nick, Avery, Kylie, and Pinkie were looking at videos of cats on YouTube, which had inexplicably become available, though they couldn’t sign in to post anything.

“So, do you think we’re gonna be saving the world every other Tuesday or something as Elements of Harmony?” Sam asked after a moment.

Starlight snorted. “Doubtful. Twilight once calculated the average time it took between villains and their respective evil plans, and came out with something like 1.011 years, give or take a few months’ deviation.”

Sam laughed. “That’s good to hear, at least we’ll have time to get ready for them.”

Starlight snorted. “Still. Expect to blast a lot of things with rainbow lasers, or whatever.”

Sam chuckled appreciatively. “Lookin’ forward to it,” he quipped, returning to the game.

Twilight arrived after a while, huffing and puffing as she perched on the railing to rest her wings. “Sorry I’m… late…” she wheezed, hopping down onto the staircase and trotting inside.

“Where’ve you been?” Sam asked curiously.

“The library… I was trying to look up information about the Barrier, see if it’s ever done something like this before,” Twilight explained.

“Any luck?” Starlight asked curiously.

Twilight huffed indignantly. “Moon Dancer told me all the books about the Barrier are ‘military documentation,’ and as such I have to request them from my brother,” she grumbled.

Starlight chuckled at Twilight’s irritation. “I dunno, I’ve heard paperwork’s a great gift for your BBBFF,” she jested. Despite herself, Twilight couldn’t help but snicker along with her.

“So… if we humans are immune to magic, how are we supposed to use it? Wouldn’t our Elements just not work, or something?” Avery pointed out.

Twilight hummed in thought. “It may be that you can only use your Elements, or some other such condition. I’m still completely confused as to why you can’t use any magic – even the most basic of animals here can at least be affected by it.”

Sam raised an eyebrow. “Wouldn’t that just be a natural consequence of coming from a world without magic?” he reminded her.

“Yes, but that violates so many natural laws that we thought were set in stone that I refuse to believe that is solely the case,” Twilight scoffed.

“I thought scientists didn’t work on faith?” Cory snarked over at her, and Sam was reminded of a rant Jeremy had had back when they were both still in high school.

Twilight stopped short, giving him a thoughtful frown. “…Okay, true. But still! If your world really has no magic, we’re going to have to rewrite all of thaumaturgy to account for it! Not to mention physics, chemistry, biology…” she listed off, before Starlight put a hoof to her mouth.

“Slow down there, Twilight. We’ll cross those bridges when we come to them.”

Twilight huffed a sigh from behind her hoof, before prying it off with her magic. “…You’re right. Anyway, have any of you tried channeling magic through your Elements of Harmony?” she asked curiously.

“I could draw in the air with this paintbrush,” Cory noted, pulling it out and handing it over for her to inspect.

“This paintbrush is definitely magical, though I don’t recognize the signature of whoever’s spell this is,” Twilight noted, holding it in her magic and examining it closely.

“If it’s an Element of Harmony, then somepony really powerful must have made it,” Starlight added, peering at it as well.

“Wouldn’t that First Alicorn have made it?” Sam asked pointedly.

Twilight scoffed. “Nopony’s seen her in millennia, so we can’t exactly ask.”

Sam gave the others a knowing grimace. “Right… well, anything else we should do today?” he asked.

”Ooh! Can we go out for lunch! I know a great place!” Pinkie volunteered.

“Sure, why not?” Twilight decided, standing up and ruffling her wings to stretch them out.

“Is it that muffin place, Pinkie? Muffins aren’t exactly a full meal,” Starlight pointed out.

Pinkie giggled. “No, silly! It’s this great new café in town called ‘Clawfee Shop! Get it? Like ‘coffee’, but with a claw, because the owner’s a griffon!” she explained, hooking her hoof forward in a claw-like manner to accentuate her point.

“Sounds good to me,” Starlight shrugged.

A half hour later, they were relaxing at the Clawfee Shop. To the humans’ surprise, meat dishes were being served here, and while ponies mostly avoided these, the shop did good business nonetheless. The owner, an immaculately dressed griffon, had first greeted Pinkie as an old friend – apparently they had been pen pals who had quickly gotten to discussing the finer points of cooking. From there, he was surprised to see six aliens and six more ponies accompanying her, and pleased when he found that the humans would take meat dishes. “It’s such a shame that these aren’t ordered more often – ponies really need to loosen up about the whole thing!” he laughed, walking away with their orders.

“So… Meat, huh?” Cory asked as soon as he was gone.

“It’s magically replicated meat,” Twilight corrected.

“So, what, they used a duplication spell on some cow or chicken or something?” Sam wondered, and Twilight shot him a pleased smile.

“Yes, actually! It avoids actually having to hurt, or Celestia forbid kill the animals they harvest the meat from. I hear they’re paid quite well for essentially sitting still and being duplicated, too.” Sam hummed in thought.

“Well, I suppose it would be pretty terrifying to watch pieces of yourself get magically created over and over again and carried away,” Starlight theorized.

After they had finished and paid for their lunch, they thanked the owner, who bowed low. “Come again!” he called as they left the shop, the doorbell jingling as each one of them stepped off of the welcome mat.

“So, that was pretty fun. Now what?” Sam wondered.

Twilight shrugged. “We didn’t really have much planned for today… this whole incident with Tartarus has thrown my curriculum too far off. So… how about we just head back?” she offered. The six humans shrugged in agreement, and they began walking through the busy streets back towards the Canterlot palace.

To their surprise, they found Celestia waiting for them at the doors. “Twilight! There you are. I found nopony at the humans’ quarters and thought something had happened,” she laughed.

“Oh! You’re right, Celestia, I should have sent word,” Twilight sheepishly replied.

“Not to worry, Twilight. A Guard spotted you on the way over, and he told me where you had gone,” Celestia explained.

Sam, who was watching her intently, noticed a slight flick of her ear when she said this. He decided to, as Jeremy might put it, ‘test a theory.’ “Really? Wow, they must have been really unobtrusive, I didn’t see a Guard the whole way,” he replied.

Celestia’s ear twitched more. “Oh, I… pride my Guards on being discreet,” she added, clearly trying to sound casual.

Sam was silent, and Celestia’s smile wobbled slightly. “Seems about right for the Royal Guard!” he finally answered, turning around. “Come on, guys, let’s head back. I’m tired,” he called, and the humans quickly joined him.

Listening carefully, Sam heard a certain alicorn’s quiet exhalation of relief, and grimaced.

“Celestia’s lying to us,” he began as soon as he had checked the windows and doors of his apartment.

“What? How?!” Avery exclaimed.

“How do you know?” Cory added.

“We didn’t see a Guard the whole way back, because they’re all still in the castle trying to deal with Tartarus. When I hinted at that, Celestia tried to cover herself. She’s definitely lying about something big,” Sam explained.

“Like what? Is she spying on us to make herself seem omniscient, or something?” Nick wondered.

“Or maybe she’s trying to cover up something else? Something we might have seen if we’d looked too closely?” Avery added.

“Hey, hey, whoa there! Settle down, everyone. Has it occurred to anyone that Celestia might be lying to us just to appear on top of the situation?” Brayden interrupted.

“…How so?” Sam asked.

“Think about it. She’s dealing with some pretty intense stuff right now. We saw she’s having an argument with her sister, and on top of that the thing with Tartarus is going on. She’s probably just stressed, is all. Doesn’t want us causing additional trouble,” Brayden theorized.

“Hmm… maybe,” Avery cautiously agreed.

“Still, what about the thing with Harmony Labs yesterday? She definitely dodged the question on that, and it was about a research lab,” Nick pointed out.

Brayden shrugged. “Maybe it’s a national security thing. We don’t just tell people what’s going on at NASA, or the Department of Energy and stuff, right?” The others nodded to this. “So maybe she’s conducting some research she doesn’t want other nations to know about just yet. No reason to make her out to be a villain,” Brayden finished, looking at them sternly.

“…Alright, you have a point. We shouldn’t jump to conclusions. But… I would like to actually get an explanation from her,” Sam grumbled.

With not much else to say, they lounged around as the afternoon turned to evening. “Where’d the ponies go, anyway?” Avery wondered, his new magic quill scratching against a piece of parchment.

“Probably off with Celestia… what are you doing?” Cory noticed, sitting up.

“Writing down the stuff that’s happened to us so far. I felt it’d be good to have a record of our adventure,” Avery pointed out.

“Fair enough,” Cory agreed.

“Hey, if we’re looking for stuff to do, maybe we could all start trying to figure out what these Elements can do?” Sam asked sleepily.

“You’re the boss, boss,” Cory snarked, pulling out his paintbrush. “Hey, toss me a parchment sheaf, I want to practice,” he called over to Avery, who wordlessly tossed a heavy roll of parchment at him as he continued to write, not once taking his eyes off his script. Cory caught it, rolling out a paper-sized piece and tearing it off loudly. He looked around. “Anyone got some… aluminum foil, or an easel, or something…?” he wondered.

“You have a magic paintbrush, you can probably just clean up any mess you make by 'erasing' it or something,” Brayden answered, inspecting his massive, golden broadsword.

“…If you say so,” Cory agreed, taking out his tiny paintbrush and beginning to make slow, precise strokes along the border of the parchment.

Sam, meanwhile, was staring at his strange crown, gazing into the cyan six-pointed star jewel. Something iridescent twinkled at the back, deep within the crystal, though Sam couldn’t quite make out what it was. Sighing, he put it on.

So, this is Magic. The most powerful Element. And… I have no clue how to use it, he thought glumly. He looked around at the others. Avery was writing, his inkwell glowing slightly each time he dipped the feather quill into it. Cory was still painting, the parchment about half covered with various glossy hues. Brayden was hefting the sword, tossing it up slightly into the air as it converted between its sword, shield and lance forms. Nick was examining his stamp, a glum expression to match Sam’s own as he looked at it. Kylie was flicking his microphone, no sound coming out despite his finger directly hitting the grill at the top.

“So, uh… anyone have any idea how I can use magic?” Sam hesitantly asked.

“Have you tried the Harry Potter method?” Avery suggested.

Sam looked at him. “Avery, I don’t care if we are in a kids’ show. I am not running around shouting nonsense half-Latin at the top of my lungs.”

Avery chuckled. “What if it’s the only way for you to use magic?” he teased.

Sam went silent for a moment. ”Wingardium Leviosa,” he spoke, looking directly at Avery, and Avery paled. Fortunately for Avery, nothing happened following this pronouncement, and Sam slumped in relief. “Thank goodness, I thought that might work for a second,” he muttered.

“Um… If I remember right, spells in this world consist of a key phrase you have to memorize. Like how the spell that made Twilight an alicorn went… something, something, ‘magic without end?’ It was a rhyme,” Nick tried to remember.

“Nick, that is even worse than the Latin,” Sam grumbled, and Avery laughed.

“But unicorns didn’t rhyme out loud whenever they cast spells – at least, not in the first season,” Brayden pointed out. “Maybe you just have to think it?”

Sam shrugged at this, and glanced at the lone, unused chair at the single desk in the room. Move up, he commanded mentally. Nothing happened.

Move away from the center of the earth, he tried again. To everyone’s surprise, the chair wobbled slightly.

“I think you did something!” Avery noticed, following his gaze to the wobbling chair.

“I think… I have to be more specific,” Sam mused. Ah, hell, why not. Move three feet away from the center of the Earth at a speed of one foot per second, and hover in position there, he tried. Swiftly, the chair rose to hover in the air above them, hanging there.

“Holy…” Brayden breathed, but quickly cut himself off.

“…Wow,” Cory murmured, looking at the chair hanging above him with no support. “Sam, you-“ he stopped as he looked at Sam, who was quickly going blue in the face with effort, clenching his fists as he shook and struggled.

“Sam, stop!” Brayden ordered.

“I don’t know how, it just keeps going!” Sam got out, twitching slightly.

“Order the spell to cease!” Avery tried, rushing to his side.

Sam screwed up his face in concentration, and the chair fell to the floor with an echoing thud a moment later as he slumped over in relief.

“You okay?” Brayden worried, rolling Sam over so that he was facing the ceiling.

“Okay… I learned… that you have… to manually stop a spell,” Sam wheezed, exhausted.

“Jeez, you look like you just ran a marathon,” Cory noted. “Let’s get some food in you.”

A few minutes later, Sam had eaten and was currently resting, following along as best he could with the excited discussion of the others.

“Okay. Avery, you getting this down?” Cory began.

“Yeah, don’t worry, I took notes,” Avery confirmed.

“The one time you take notes, and we aren’t in class,” Nick snarked, and Avery laughed.

“Yeah, yeah. Anyway, here’s what I got.”

“To do magic, you must first instruct whatever you want to happen as specifically as you can, as Sam told us. This was demonstrated by a levitation spell that lasted for approximately fifteen seconds, before Sam shut it off, leaving him exhausted. Our theory so far is… what’s our theory about this again?” Avery asked, looking up from his writings.

“Well… I think that Sam might be so tired because he doesn’t have much magic to begin with. Kind of like exercising an unused muscle for the first time, and trying to do something really strenuous with it,” Brayden spoke up.

“You think there might be an actual ‘magic muscle’ in unicorns? They do have horns, and those have to be connected to something,” Nick noted.

“Earth ponies and pegasi can use magic too, so there can’t be just one. My guess is that there’s some in the brain and some in the hooves or wings or something,” Sam mumbled sleepily.

“Wow, can’t believe we’re doing science about magic. Your sciency friend would be proud,” Kylie joked, and Sam smiled exhaustedly.

“Yeah…” he agreed, closing his eyes.

“Okay, okay, back on topic. Evidence supporting the ‘not enough magic’ theory is that unicorns can levitate stuff no problem, they do it all the time, probably because they have a lot of magic inside them. Evidence against… uh, anyone have any evidence against that theory?”

Brayden cautiously raised a hand. “Well, uh… if Sam’s the Element of Magic, and he’s conducting magic through his Element… wouldn’t it have a lot of magic, though?” he countered.

Avery considered this. “Okay… yeah, that’s a fair point. Sam, any thoughts?” he asked. Silence answered him.

“Uh, Sam?” Cory asked, poking him.

“He’s asleep,” Kylie pointed out.

“Poor guy, he never had much physical endurance to begin with,” Brayden sighed, turning him around on the bed and tucking him in.

“Maybe we should continue this tomorrow? Wait for Sam to be back to full strength?” Avery asked the group.

“…Nah, I can stay up, and he's already done enough for us to talk about,” Cory denied, idly still painting on his piece of parchment.

“Same,” Kylie agreed, and the other three chorused their agreement.

“Okay, just checking. Anyway…” Avery trailed off.

They continued to discuss things well into the night, unaware that they were being watched. Outside their window, a flurry of bright white wings carried their owner away from the tower, and back to her own.

“What news, sister?” Luna spoke as soon as Celestia landed on their shared parapet.

“They suspect me of lying to them,” Celestia noted sadly. “The larger one – Brayden, I think it was – seemed to think I was under duress, but the others disagree, and think I may be somehow misleading them.”

Luna raised an eyebrow. “Perhaps you should be more honest with them? We are, in fact, keeping secrets from them,” she pointed out.

Celestia shook her head angrily, whinnying slightly. “We cannot just tell them about – about that! Some things were not meant to be known by our mortal charges,” she argued.

Luna regarded her coldly. “And yet, if Sam’s dreams are anything to go by, they will know eventually, regardless of your feelings. Not to mention the other human currently down there,” she rebutted.

Celestia drooped slightly at that. “I hope he’s alright,” she whispered. Hopefully he wouldn’t go too deep down there…