Chapter 92 - Interference
Early Monday morning, before the sun had even risen, Cozy Glow studied her chalk drawing of the Alicorn Amulet. Her plan was two-fold. She would try for the drain, just in case Rainbow Dash was not really a master mev or not really immune to this kind of magic. Even if there were truly a pack of mevs who lived in Ponyville, she might still manage to properly delay and distract them. The original idea of taking away all unicorn magic would remain intact. She could take advantage of the pony students' unease, point the blame to the initially unaffected non-pony students and be regarded as a leading, guiding force, an Empress of Friendship.
If the mevs did interfere, they were in store for a surprise. The magnet would summon the amulet instead. It would be drawn to Cozy as the one who cast the summon. Only Rainbow Dash among them could hope to stand up against the dangerous object. Cozy was confident in her own cleverness. She could outwit the master mev. Rainbow was known mostly for speed, which wouldn't amount to much in the face of the amulet's magic. It would overwhelm and overpower all her friends, based on what Cozy knew of Trixie using it.
The scheming filly placed the magical artifacts Celestia donated the school in a circle surrounding her drawing.
She completed another drawing surrounding the one of the amulet.
"There. Everything is ready," she proclaimed with a small smile to herself.
A small orb of teal energy appeared. To her surprise, it flashed red momentarily. The amulet outline glowed red too and then seemed to mold into the ground, disappearing into the bedrock. Cozy tapped a hoof to her chin thoughtfully and waited to see if the drain was skipping straight to the summon since it was quite likely the red flash was related to the fact the gem in the amulet was red. The orb remained teal after the flash.
She decided to stay for a few extra minutes to see if the red flashed again.
It didn't.
She sighed quietly to herself. "I suppose it won't be too much longer," she murmured to the air. "I'll check back on you every hour or so, just in case. We are possibly dealing with mevs after all."
Indeed, the presence of Team Awesome and the magnet taking place on their home turf slowed the drain down considerably. The morning passed without a hitch.
"Lunch is ready, Your Highness," a servant pony of the Crystal Empire told Princess Cadance at noon.
The pink alicorn flew up from her throne and descended to the long red carpet leading to and from her former seat. She paused in her trek and contemplatively made her way to the Crystal Heart. There, she watched it spin once. It radiated out a glowing red circle encasing the empire in a translucent red force-field.
Cadance stared at it with intense scrutiny. Shining Armor and Sunburst, having been informed of her detour approached to look at the heart as well. Flurry Heart watched the entire thing in quiet confusion with them, clutched in her father's grip.
"What is it?" Shining Armor asked.
Adjusting his glasses, Sunburst looked at the heart, then out and up to the red force-field surrounding the entire Crystal Empire. "Protection of some kind but from what?"
"I'm not sure," Cadance admitted, "but I'm going to Equestria immediately to see if Rainbow Dash knows anything."
The other two nodded in agreement with that plan. Flurry Heart reached out for her mother. Cadance approached and looked on her daughter with a sincere gaze. "Mommy has to go somewhere, but I'll be back as soon as I can. Promise."
The tiny foal frowned, a tear forming in her eyes, but her protest went no further as she received an affectionate nuzzle. She clung to her father afterwards and watched as Cadance teleported away in a flash.
As Cozy Glow had taken six magical objects from a chest at the School of Friendship, Sweetie Belle had been caring for another six magical objects in the white trunk Rainbow Dash gave her. They were Pearl from Seaquestria, Amara from the Crystal Empire, Grant from Griffonstone, Jasper from the Dragon Lands, Ida from the Changeling Kingdom, and Anat from Yakyakistan. The Crystal Empire was a kingdom linked closely with Equestria.
Sweetie Belle would check the trunk often and once learning they had friendship among each other and liveliness if activated, she would talk to them. She drew them for practice. She lifted them with her magic. They could feel her, and they knew her. This was especially true for Pearl and Amara, just as they knew they all had a trace of mev magic thanks to Rainbow Dash.
So, when Sweetie Belle's unicorn non-mev magic began to drain, Amara felt it first. She was the first to be named among them and hailed from a land of ponies, knowing unicorn magic from Cadance too.
Tucked away in the chest with the others, Amara spun in her invincible case and shook up and down to alert the other objects of what she sensed and what she did, to advise they protect their respective original homes. The mystical magnet Cozy setup was finally at work and absorbing unicorn magic in Ponyville. Amara did not know Cozy Glow in any way, but she knew enough to sense the draining magic and that with enough time, other creatures were at risk.
Deep within Seaquestria, the Magic Pearl radiated the same red glowing circle outward from itself that the Crystal Heart in the Crystal Empire did. That caught the attention of the sea ponies residing within. Princess Skystar was among them, having felt a sudden curiosity to check in on it anyway.
"What was that?" Skystar uttered. She swallowed nervously and swam up to the surface. She was shocked to see a large translucent red force-field surrounding both Mount Aris and Seaquestria. She immediately turned herself into a hippogriff and flew to the throne room. "Mom! Mom! Did you see? Do you know what that is?"
Queen Novo followed her daughter to finding a nearby window. Her mouth fell open.
"Is that a bad thing or a good thing? It came from the Pearl!" Skystar explained.
"Not just the Pearl…" Queen Novo informed her daughter. "I'm afraid its both. Something is preparing to disrupt the magic across the world, but that my daughter, that is the Master Mev's protection for us. Remember, she took a tiny piece of pearl with her and scouted our kingdom."
"So what do we do?" Skystar asked.
Queen Novo sighed. "For now, wee wait."
"Well, we gotta tell her, don't we?" Skystar said. "What if she doesn't know?"
"She'll find out soon enough," Novo told her daughter. "Of that, I am quite certain."
Gilda watched with a truly perplexed expression at red gusts of wind flowing from the Abysmal Abyss. They merged into forming a translucent force-field surrounding Griffonstone. "Rainbow Dash, what is going on?" she uttered to herself.
Gabby approached. "What is that thing?" she asked.
Gilda shook her head. "I don't know, but something tells me it has to do with Rainbow Dash and when she was here to get the idol of Boreas."
The other griffon blinked. "She has it?" Gabby whispered in shock. "When did that happen? How did she get it?"
Gilda held up a clawed hand to shush Gabby. "None of that matters. The point is, yeah, she does."
"Please tell me. Please please please," Gabby begged.
Grampa Gruff coughed as he arrived at the scene. "That mev wouldn't tell us much, but it wasn't long ago. She has it with Gilda's...approval."
Gilda nodded quietly with closed eyes in confirmation.
"Oh, okay," Gabby replied and put at ease.
Gilda paced trying to think of what to do and remembered the story about a magic-eating centaur. If he was out there, the safest place for the three of them was still here in Griffonstone. That was the point of calling the mev thing a job after all. Losing flight magic if they left the field's protection would rather defeat the point.
"What do we do?" Gabby asked.
Gilda sighed. "Let's stay put for now. If it's not gone by tomorrow, we'll set out. Give Dash some time to handle it."
Gabby nodded. "Yeah, okay, that sounds like a good plan."
Grampa Gruff coughed but his lack of protest was understood for agreement.
Ember watched as the Bloodstone Scepter she held radiated out a red glowing circle through the Dragon Lands. She flew out to an open area and stared at a sudden giant red force-field. "That's...odd," she commented aloud to herself. She went to find a scroll and ink, so she could send off a letter to ask Spike what it could mean.
To her surprise, her father, Torch, flew in and approached. "Dad!"
"Ah, Ember, good, I found you," Torch said. "Send word to Master Rainbow Dash right away to tell her about the force-field that just went up. It must be a warning from Jasper since our magic here is perfectly intact."
Ember nodded. "Okay, yeah...sure," the younger dragon agreed with a quiet nod at this information. She wasn't too far off from what he advised, at least.
Thorax blinked quietly from his seat at an ongoing play at the hive for the Changeling Kingdom. Curious, he stood up quietly and made his way to the mirror linked to Ida. A few interested changelings followed their silent king. Thorax made it just in time to see the mirror swoosh out a glowing red circle. Everyone looked at their surroundings to see the red force-field in place.
"Is something wrong with Master Rainbow Dash?" one timidly asked.
"I certainly hope not," Thorax uttered
"What do we do?" asked another changeling.
"All of you are going to stay here. I'm going to Equestria," Thorax announced.
They nodded solemnly in acceptance of his decision.
Multiple yaks paused in their swaying of a song after their hearty lunch at the realization that their music player stopped. Prince Rutherford lifted his bangs just in time to see the same glowing red circle spread across his kindgom.
"What that mean?" one yak asked.
"Magic problem," Rutherford noted, blowing his bangs upward in contemplation.
"Should yaks do anything?" another yak asked.
Rutherford shook his head. "No. Team Awesome handle it. Yaks not need much magic, and force-field protect us now. We go tomorrow if force-field not gone then."
The other yaks nodded in agreement and went back to swaying as the music turned back on soon after.
Sweetie Belle was with Rarity, helping her older sister teach. The younger unicorn was the acting assistant for the class. The stack of sample patterns she levitated with her magic suddenly fell from her grip and gently descended to the floor. She tried to pick them up again by using her horn, and nothing happened.
Rarity took notice of the fallen patterns. "Sweetie Belle, are you going to stare at them all day?"
Sweetie looked up at Rarity and told her sister, "I can't pick them up with my magic all of a sudden."
Another unicorn in class raised their hoof and offered in support, "I can't lift my needle with my magic all of a sudden either."
Rarity quickly picked up the fallen patterns and set them aside. There was only one other unicorn in the class, so she asked that unicorn to lift a small piece of fabric. The one she asked could not do it.
"How come your magic works bur ours doesn't?" a student asked.
Rarity stood in thought for a moment. "We'd best go see Rainbow Dash right away," she told the unicorn students. "Sweetie, come along. No doubt Rainbow could still use your assistance. I trust the rest of you can handle the assignment for now?"
"Yona can," Yona announced firmly.
The other students nodded and murmured in agreement.
Rarity led the two unicorn students and Sweetie Belle to Rainbow Dash's gym. As expected, that class was playing a game. None of the students were unicorns and even if they were, Rainbow's games tended to require flying or running and certainly not unicorn magic.
Rarity cleared her throat to catch the master mev's attention.
Rainbow heard her. "Time out, everyone," she instructed her students and flew down. "Mitria, they are too young," she teased with a playful wink.
"Haha, very funny, Master, but there is indeed a reason I bring you these unicorns. Their magic has stopped working," Rarity explained. "Sweetie Belle's too."
The younger white unicorn nodded solemnly at that.
"Really now?" Rainbow asked, quite intrigued.
The other two unicorns nodded to confirm.
She sniffed them. "You're drained," the master mev noted. She sniffed Sweetie next. "You're not as depleted. My magic's still in there."
Sweetie Belle looked up at Rainbow Dash hopefully. "Does that mean I can use magic as your servant?"
"Try it. I order you to lift one of those balls," Rainbow said with a gesturing forelimb to a basket full of red balls.
Rhezenda obeyed and succeeded. Her magic aura was red as she did.
All of the students began to chatter in awe.
"How are we drained?" one of the unicorn students Rarity brought asked Rainbow Dash.
"I'm not sure yet," Rainbow Dash admitted. "We can rule me out since I can't bite kids or eat during the day without permission," She studied the sample victims closely. "Eyes and cutie marks look the way they should, so it wasn't Tirek. He's still in Tartarus." She paused for a moment, thinking back to when she last saw him. He told her he would be seeing her if he wanted to or not. Did he know something? She examined the horns. "I'm going to touch each of your horns to check something," she warned the two students.
They nodded in nervous agreement. She ran her feathered wings along the edges of each unicorn horn. Each student found it a surprising pleasure and did their best to hide this fact given the severity of the situation.
"No invisible dampening rings. I better scan the school," Rainbow Dash decided. Looking for invisible disabling machines was a stretch, but the commonality for the troubled unicorn pair and Sweetie Belle was their location.
Galloping hooves and the slamming of a rushed open door could be heard with a forceful lilac forelimb seen preceding its lilac owner. "Master, three unicorn students have come to me to tell me their magic stopped working," Starlight Glimmer announced in panic as she arrived at the gym. She stopped at seeing the other unicorns already present.
Twilight Sparkle came in shortly after with a more subdued rush in her movement. "Rainbow Dash, Spike was barely able to get two letters out, one to me and one to you. Something's wrong with his ability to receive mail. The one for me is that we are being called to an emergency meeting in Canterlot." She magically guided the other letter from Ember.
Rainbow Dash read it. "Wow," she uttered.
"What is it?" Twilight asked with worried anticipation.
"Well, it's good news and bad news," Rainbow informed her. "The good news is the Dragon Lands got a force-field that they think is thanks to our visit. The bad news is that's all they know."
"Probably related to whatever is draining unicorn magic here—as well as Spike," Rarity suggested.
The other mevs nodded with silent agreement on that theory.
"Hopefully Celestia can shed some light on this at the meeting," Twilight remarked.
Cozy Glow stood at Twilight's side and poked her head out. "Didn't we learn about another magic-eating creature in class?" she asked them. "Tire…" she pretended to struggle to remember his name.
"Tirek," Rarity finished for her right away., "Master has already deduced that he is not the guilty party."
"Really? How?" asked a curious Cozy Glow with slightly exaggerated innocence.
"It's my job to know this stuff," was the only explanation Rainbow Dash gave as she stared at the letter. She rolled it up and passed it to Sweetie Belle. Rainbow landed on the ground and pulled out her cell phone to send word to the other Awesomevs. "Twilight, I think we should cancel classes for today," she suggested.
Twilight nodded. "I agree wholeheartedly Rainbow. Cozy, see to it that the other students are informed. Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle are probably going with us."
Rainbow silently nodded while still texting to confirm.
"Why?" Cozy wondered.
"They're needed to help Rainbow Dash for our meeting," Twilight explained.
Rainbow turned to her other students, which included Smolder and Gallus among them. "Everyone, classes are cancelled for the rest of the day. Tell the other students."
Gallus and Smolder exchanged glances.
"But I thought that was my job," Cozy said.
"Yeah, you could use a little help," Rainbow told her. "May as well get my own class to spread the word since they're right here."
Gallus approached Rainbow Dash and asked, "Professor Dash, anything else we can do to help?"
Rainbow sighed. "I'm a bit overwhelmed at the moment so stand by. I promise I will come to you if there's anything to be done."
With that, the mevs and Cozy left for Twilight's office.
Gallus gulped nervously and glanced Smolder's way.
Smolder frowned. "Come on, let's find our friends. I'm glad home is safe for now, but I'll feel better if we're all together for whatever this is."
"Yeah, I think that's best too," Gallus agreed.
Stats
Page generated in 0.026 seconds
Total duration
712 users online
799,205 hits today, 2,054,621 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Great chapter!
11414260
Thank you!
11414294
You’re welcome!