Ghost of the Everfree

by David Silver

27 - Hi

"Hello." Snails was watching Dry as they sat at their desk. "You look, um, different."

On one hoof, Snails noticing was almost surprising, considering how unperceptive the colt had been so far. Still... That was quite the change. "In a good way?"

"Lookin' good." Snails bobbed his head. "Shh, she's coming."

'She' was Miss Cheerilee with her usual sunny smile. "Good morning, class! I'm..." She trailed off, noticing that one of her students had changed, but she caught herself and pressed onwards. "--ready to get into some fun things today! Of special interest to the unicorns in the room, we're going to cover magic." She flipped over her board, revealing that she meant historical uses of magic. Any hopes of learning magic were dashed.

She was not a magical tutor. An earth pony would not be a natural fit for that anyway. "Our past is full of interesting magic, both used by unicorns, and not. We are, as a whole, a magical species. Even an earth pony like me could..." She saw Apple Bloom waving wildly. "Yes, I am aware you've learned some magic, Apple Bloom." Her sour expression lifted into a bright smile. "Which just proves the point. We're all magic, unicorns just do it the most often. And through history, magic has visited us, sometimes at the least expected moment."

Dry listened to the stories of magic through the ages, how it helped determine the flows of great conflicts or peaceful goings with equal abandon. "Um." He raised a hoof and began to wave it.

"Dry Whisper?" She looked towards him, examining his new nature freshly. "You have a question?"

"Yes, ma'am... What about song magic?" He put his flat hoof against his throat. "Has that done a lot?"

She hummed softly. "Now that is a good but difficult question. The magic of the heartsong is quite powerful indeed." She put a hoof over her own heart. "It comes when it feels like it, carrying ponies away with what's on their minds and, well, hearts. During heartsongs, great things can be accomplished, or, sometimes, just seeing things clearly as your heart sees it, and that's a magic all of its own, hm? The most important thing I can think of concerning heartsongs is that they are always true, but..."

She lowered that hoof. "That truth relies on who's singing. To make it more complicated, you don't always remember what you sang, or that you sang at all. Don't be alarmed. If you don't remember, odds are good nopony around you remembers either. Unless that pony is Pinkie Pie." The entire room nodded softly in acknowledgment of Pinkie being the known exception in all cases. "Either way, you may sing your truth, which may not be the truth others know. Even if you remember the words, don't assume it's proof of anything but your feelings on the matter."

Dry rubbed his cheek with thought creasing his furry brow. "Does song magic... work on a lot of ponies, at once?"

"Oh, it certainly can, and often does, especially for holidays." Cheerilee nodded as she began scribbling on the board with the chalk she held in her mouth. "And a few notable events, such as..." The lesson was continuing, detouring into great moments of heartsong in the history of Equestria.

But Dry wasn't satisfied, waiting until she turned around to wave at her.

Cheerilee inclined her head slightly. "You are very curious today. Dry?"

"Yes, um, sorry..." He worried his hooves a moment. "What happens if you don't sing?"

"You're asking excellent questions." She set her chalk down on the lip of the board. "Now, generally, there isn't a reason to resist heartsong. It doesn't hurt ponies. If you feel like singing, sing. On the other hoof, if you don't want to sing, it can't force you, just encourage you. If you don't rise to the challenge, two things can happen." She raised two hooves, sitting back on her haunches.

"One: The heartsong ends. If a vital singer isn't taking part, the magic can unweave, and that's that. Two: Somepony else fills in the gap. If the singer wasn't vital, somepony else will take up the missing part. A stumble, but the magic continues and nothing's hurt either way." She lowered her hooves with a nod at the class. "But there really isn't much of a reason to fight it. You may even learn something valuable, or help somepony else to do so, so just sing, and let our hearts have a moment to share their opinions on the matter, without our brains getting in the way."

"One thing." She reared up onto her desk. "Even if you do run away from a heartsong, that doesn't increase the odds of you remembering it, so don't do it for that." She sank down to her haunches, eyes on Dry. "But you've been asking some very specific questions. Were you visited by a heartsong?"

"Um..." He had been seen through! Miss Cheerilee was too perceptive an adult, used to handling colts like him. "Yes... It was my first time."

"You look like you're alright. Did you learn anything, besides being surprised?" Her expression was calm and accepting, though quite locked on him.

"I..." He waved a shaking hoof over himself. "That's when this happened... Um... I think the 'heartsong' is very Equestrian... Taking part in one brought me over... Ready or not."

"Hm." Cheerilee stood and walked towards Dry at a slow pace. "That makes some amount of sense. Now, class, this is a valuable lesson. The heartsong is a form of magic. Usually, just to express ourselves, or get things done, but it can do other things too." She set a hoof on his desk, eyes on his. "Like invite a friend in. Welcome, Dry Whisper."

He felt a pain and his vision was blurry. Oh, he had shed some tears. Wiping them away with a little sniffle, he smiled at the teacher. "Thank you..."

"You're very welcome. Now then..." She returned to the front of the room to continue the lesson of historical magic use.

---

"That happened to me once." Silver Spoon was walking at his side, leaving the building. "That I, like, remember at least. That's the worst part, if you ask me." She poked at his side. "That I could be doing something and not remember it. But it's not like we forget all we did, just the singing part. So weird..."

Dry shook his head slowly. "I never had that before." He had only encountered the heartsong once properly. "Can... Can you start one? If I started to sing, would it begin?" He clapped his hooves over his face, as if that could happen accidentally.

Silver swatted at his hooves and hopped up across from Diamond. "Hey girl!" They met, hooves clopping firmly. "Dry's, like, super curious about heartsongs. It's cute."

He was cute! He colored at the word applied to him. "I was... just wondering if you could start a heartsong."

Diamond shook her head. "Not that easy. Probably a good thing too, or ponies would just do that, all the time. I don't want to be stuck singing forever. Think of it... as... Alright. Your heart." She thumped her chest with a grin. "It gets full of stuff, and it wants to get out, right? That pressure gets too high, and it gets out. Heartsong."

"Oh. Oh.... I... think I get it." But his heart was full of things. "Why haven't I sung then?"

Silver Spoon looked at him with fresh worry. "Are you that worked up?" She threw a leg around him. "Tell me about it? I wanna help!"

He began to darken swiftly at her attention. He was very far from used to having a girlfriend, especially one that cared so much about him. "I want to make a good impression." The words hadn't been spoken, as he planned, instead a gentle song. "To make a little confession."

Diamond sagged against a hoof, watching the two of them. "They're so cute I want to barf." She had used a word that was hard to rhyme with. One could see her struggling to think up a line.

That was alright, it wasn't her song. Silver was ready to take her part, "You're fine the way you are. Your change is handsome, like, not a scar." She set her hooves on his trembling face. "A different you, but still you. It's the same heart even if the face's brand-new!"

He pushed one of her hooves away. "I can't even see myself," he sang in an upswell. "The answer's not on a bookshelf." He set a hoof on his new holy pendant. "Not even finished growing, and this is what I'm showing?" His hooves all hit the ground at once. "It's not fair..."

"That doesn't mean we don't care." She nuzzled his frowning face and gathered him in closer. "It's an adventure you didn't sign up for."

"Is that why all the uproar?" Diamond was watching the two of them almost fall over each other. "Think we were asked? I think not. We were just put on the spot. Ghosts and worse, knocking on doors. Getting through that place was like surviving the wars."

Silver nodded at her friend. "We just weren't ready. We wished somepony would hold us steady."

"On our own, a world hostile. Looked like we'd be stuck there a while." Diamond leaned over the table, glaring at Dry. "Sound familiar, well it should. Is that a rhyme? Well it could. We're facing down the same threat, but you got a leg up. Bunch of friends giving a check-up." She reached, placing her hoof on his nose that squeaked with the boop. "Count your blessing, should be good. Worshipping now, so you should."

He flumped to his haunches on the chair, the song music fizzling miserably when he didn't take his part. "I'm just a little scared... Um, thank you, both of you. All of you... You're amazing friends! Of all the things I'm scared of, my friends are not one of them." He clutched closer Luminace's symbol. "Friendship is worth it, at least."

Diamond waved at him silently.

Silver got the message. She slipped from her chair. "We agree on that. Now... Seriously, you're doing alright. Eat some lunch." She casually buried her face in something fluffy and came up with a big chunk removed from it and covering her face. "It's good."

He squeaked softly, digging out a small napkin at the end of his sticky hoof. He shoved it against her and began cleaning quickly. "You shouldn't do that!"

Diamond fluttered her lashes with a giggle. "Don't like seeing your girlfriend get dirty?"

"She is not meant to be." He brought back the napkin from her cleaned snout. "She is a vision of perfection."

Both fillies began to darken. Silver Spoon punched him right in the chest. "Stop it! I... alright, don't stop it, but... gosh!" She suddenly fled away.

Diamond smirked at the stunned colt. "No, you didn't mess up." She popped a little hoof-full of nuts into her mouth. "You just made her feel things, and sometimes foals hate when you do that, colts or fillies. Do it again."

"I don't want her to be upset." He brushed himself clean. "We should get back to class."

"Hey, just saying." Diamond hopped down, trusting her butler to take care of things. "Being bothered in just the right way is exactly what a pony wants. You did good, trust me."

The school resumed with more magical adventures performed through the years. "And that's how we discovered coal." She was pointing at a drawing of a train, smoke billowing upwards. "And with it, a minor revolution! Digging it up and using it became two major industries, and it still is, and magic was involved in that too. As I started, we are magical creatures. It shouldn't be that odd that magic influences us as we explore this wonderful world of ours."

Author's Note:

Cheerilee gives important lessons. That's all that matters, right?

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Comments

[Booster Spice]

Charcoal was found as forest fires leaving bits of tree still burning, while coal was found because it looks and feels similar to charcoal and burns when used with it?

As for rhyming songs, poor Scootalloo.

My mane is purple and my fur is orange, what I'll become I do not know.

[howard035]

Silver's reaction was adorable!