Find the Magic
By the time Monday came around, it had already been a week since this whole thing started. And yet, it had only been a week. Having a traumatic experience and ones worldview shattered - well, perhaps slightly cracked - certainly did make time seem almost meaningless for a while.
But damaged worldview or not, Rarity stuck to her daily routine. Shower, hair, makeup, light breakfast, pack bags, go to school along with Sweetie Belle, split up, meet friends. Nothing was supposed to disturb this routine, and yet after she parted ways with her sister in the entrance hall, she found the hallway leading to her locker sectioned off with striped tape.
"What in the world?" She pushed her way past the students crowding near the hallway to get a better look, ending up next to Rainbow Dash standing at the front.
"What gives!? It's just some water!" the athlete exclaimed, gesturing at a slowly spreading puddle coming from somewhere around the near corner ahead, getting some of the surrounding students to agree with her. Vice-Principal Luna, standing just behind the tape, raised her hands and - when that didn't get everyone to lower their voices - whistled sharply.
"I'm sorry, kids, but we have to wait for the repair firm to get here. Our janitor had no luck fixing the fountain and now he claims it keeps attacking him whenever he tries. Until everything has been fixed and cleaned up, we have to ask you to go around through the yard. If anyone slips or your textbooks get damaged, it'll fall on the school."
The students groaned and mumbled, but dispersed, giving Rarity the opportunity to address Rainbow more privately. "What in the world happened?"
"That new drinking fountain broke down or something. Started spraying water everywhere, while people were trying to get a sip. It nailed Trixie in the back of the head, so that was kinda funny." She shrugged.
Rarity resisted the schadenfreude smile that crept up on her. Certainly Trixie's hand-made cape getting wet and her hair ruined wasn't anything to find that amusing. "Do you think it might be... you know?" She fluttered her fingers, trying to mime casting a spell.
"I dunno, it looked like it just broke. But we could take a look." She smirked and glanced back into the hallway, now that the Vice-Principal had left.
"Let's not break any rules before we discuss it with everyone first," Rarity said quickly, gently putting her arm around Dash's to lead her the long way around.
=====***=====
By the time everyone could sit down for lunch, Sunset had already heard about the drinking fountain, pondering it over her meal and while looking at the notes Rarity had made after going through the notebook.
"I don't know, it could really just be broken. Wouldn't surprise me if the manufacturers made fixing it deliberately obtuse. If we start seeing magic in everything, we'll miss the forest for the trees. I think." She slipped in the last two words when she realised how firm she was talking, still used to taking charge.
"I concur," Applejack nodded, "Though if we're wrong, someone might get hurt. So perhaps we aughta check things out just to be safe."
"As for inner focus... I don't know if I can explain it verbally. But maybe I can help guide you into it?" Sunset offered, hoping she wasn't promising too much.
"Ooh, like guided meditation. That sounds like way more my style than trying to bang my head into this wall of a book," Rarity commented with a smile, sliding the closed notebook back over to Sunset.
Sunset cast another glance over Rarity's clean handwriting, as Rainbow Dash came up to the table, Pinkie in tow, who was still wearing the horse-ear headband of the cheer team uniform. "Shimmer, the soccer balls are definitely enchanted!"
She glanced up at her, chewing on a piece of carrot. "What makes you say that?"
"I couldn't hit a single shot all practice!" She slumped into her seat in a huff.
"No offence but... are you sure you're not just having an off day?"
"No one else could hit any either. At first we just weren't making any passes or goal shots. But then we kept missing the balls entirely."
"Uh-huh, I was cheering for them the whole time," Pinkie added cheerfully, "but they only kept doing worse!"
Rainbow glowered and picked up Pinkie's fork for her, shoving some of the food into her mouth.
"Alright, that does sound strange. But not as violent as either of last week's incidents."
"Yet," Rarity said warningly, holding up an impaled piece of broccoli, "That machine seemed harmless enough at first too."
"Okay, I'll have a look at both after school. Before anything like that can happen again."
Fluttershy finally joined the rest of them, setting her tray down on Sunset's other side. "Um, actually... if you don't mind..."
"You found something enchanted too?" Sunset asked with a sigh.
"I was setting up for the school play auditions and, um... someone saw the props hopping away."
There was an uncertain pause, finally broken by Pinkie. "Wow-wee, three in one day? I'm finally not missing out!"
=====***=====
After their last class period, the group split up. Since the fountain wasn't going anywhere - hopefully -, Sunset took Rarity and Fluttershy to the auditorium, while Rainbow and Applejack volunteered to gather up the soccer balls, with Pinkie casually strolling along.
She'd never seen any real magic before, but Granny Pie had always talked about it. Mom and Dad never liked to bring it up, but then there were a lot of things they didn't like talking about. Like TV, and pop music, and whatever Limestone's "college experience" was.
But the balls littering the soccer field definitely seemed magical. Not as magical as making her friends smile, but the more unusual kind. There were half a dozen of them, since the team always did practice shots in groups instead of one by one. The team had left without picking them all up, maybe out of frustration. Maybe they needed a little cheer-up party, but that had to wait until Pinkie was done helping her friends.
Rainbow Dash strode up to one of the balls right away and went for a clear shot, but the ball seemed to only bump to the side slightly, making Dash stagger. "See!?"
"Maybe ya'll are just havin' a klutzy day," Applejack said with a chuckle before bending down for one of the balls. It slipped past her fingers and rolled a few feet away. "What in tarnation?"
Pinkie stood on the bleachers and took a long, hard look at the balls, rubbing her chin like everyone always did in cartoons when they were thinking really hard. After watching a few more attempts, she hopped down and casually strolled closer to her friends. Just as Dash went for another kick and the ball rolled aside, she stepped in quick. "Gotcha!" Just where the ball had rolled, her foot connected and it went flying, hitting a goal post and bouncing back, rolling closer to them again.
"Oh, you got one!?" Rainbow asked, sounding both impressed and annoyed. The ball shifted a little on the grass.
A shiver ran up Pinkie's spine, up to her neck. She didn't know how she knew, she just knew that she knew that the ball would come flying, so she ducked, making it whip over her head, tussling her curls. Another two shivers shook her sides and she grabbed Dash's arm to drag her aside, out of the trajectory of one of the others, while yelling for Applejack, who luckily took the warning quick enough. The balls shifted and started to roll across the grass, beginning to circle them.
"Um... whoopsie. I think I made them mad--WATCH OUT!"
=====***=====
Sunset glanced around the auditorium after climbing onto the stage. A desk was set up in front, for the principals and the drama club instructor to sit at during the auditions and some chairs had been moved out of the way for it, but otherwise the room was unchanged and empty.
"Fluttershy, who did you say saw the props?" she asked as she continued to glance around.
"Um, well..." She shifted a little uncomfortably. "The birds."
"The birds?" both Sunset and Rarity said in unison, the latter sticking her head in from backstage.
Fluttershy nodded and pointed to one of the high windows. "They're nesting in that tree. I heard them singing so I thought maybe they saw where the props went and--"
"And you talked to them?" Sunset asked with disbelief.
"You don't believe me," she concluded, casting her eyes down.
Sunset shot a look at Rarity, who shrugged with a similarly confused expression. She walked over to the edge of the stage and sat down to not be looking down at Fluttershy too much. "So, they said they hopped away?"
Fluttershy nervously ran her hands through her hair, but nodded and pointed to one of the backstage passages. Rarity turned to look there again, but Sunset called to her quickly.
"If it's all the props individually, and all the soccer balls, this might be faster if we have more people who know how to disspell." She pulled two markers out of her pocket. "So, how about that guided lesson?"
=====***=====
Sometimes, Rainbow imagined whatever or whoever she was mad at in place of the ball, so she could physically kick her bad grades, or Sunset's head, back when she would have really deserved it. But she had never actually been mad at a soccer ball before.
"Come on, you round piece of shit!" she screamed, tossing herself on top of one of them, clutching it to her chest. It wiggled, like a very bloated cat trying to escape a hug, but she had a tight grip on it now. "Ha! How do you like that!? Not so tough--"
Her head spun and her vision flashed with stars for just a moment. When she could tell what was happening again, she had let go and both the ball she had caught and the one that had hit her in the side of the head rolled away over the grass.
And were promptly pounced on by Pinkie, wrapping one arm around each, trying to grapple with both of them. "You okay, Dashie!?" she half-shrieked, glancing wildly between her and Applejack, her hair somehow far more frazzled than usual. She'd avoided getting hit at all, but her nerves seemed to stand at end.
AJ was coming closer with the mesh bag, trying to keep the four balls inside from hopping back out, getting bumped in the leg a lot instead. Her hat was lying in the grass a few yards away from when she had been hit in the back.
Rainbow cursed under her breath and wiped her face, briefly spotting blood on her fingers as she stood, staggeringly. At least the throbbing pain helped her ignore the bruises on her arms and stomach. "I changed my mind, I hate magic."
Pinkie pushed the balls into the bag and quickly pulled her arms back as AJ pulled the opening closed. They both dropped it and watched the balls bounce and wiggle, but they weren't making it anywhere, all trying to get away into different directions.
"Ya might wanna get some ice," Applejack said with a sigh, "And have someone check on that nose."
"Smelling is overrated," Dash grumbled and sat back in the grass, tilting her head back and accepting a handkerchief from Pinkie, "I just hope Sunset is having a bad time too."
=====***=====
"This is amazing," Sunset said softly, forgetting to even take notes as she watched Rarity. They had spent some time sitting together on the stage as Sunset tried to explain how to reach out for the spark, to find the magic somewhere inside her.
When Sunset had to figure it out for herself, it had taken days, often interrupted by frustration breaks and loudly wondering if she was crazy to even try. But she had managed to explain it in a way that led Rarity to it in just a few minutes, even if she struggled with finding the words a few times.
A small hexagonal shape hovered over Rarity's hand, barely the size of her own palm. She carefully closed her fingers around it and managed to pick it from the air, inspecting it by slowly turning it before her eyes. With another short gesture, it vanished, dispersing into a glittering dust that seemed to just melt into thin air.
"It's so pretty," Fluttershy said with similar reverence, "What is it?"
"I'm not sure," Sunset admitted, "When I managed to cast magic for the first time, it was my flames that came to me. But apparently it's something else for both of you."
"Both?" Fluttershy looked down at herself, like she had missed something. "Um, but I didn't do anything."
"I think speaking to animals counts as magic, darling," Rarity said with a gentle smile, finally finding her words again. "But don't we have some work to do?" She picked up one of the markers.
"Right. Once we find the props, draw the rune I showed you and touch it. Hopefully it works for you as it does for me." Sunset closed her eyes and reached out with her magic. Only a faint feeling was there, but it was enough to follow. "Now, what kind of props are we even looking for?"
"Well, we should have a crown, a sceptre, some candlesticks..." Rarity started, only for Fluttershy to finish for her with a concerned whisper.
"...and a dagger."
"A... prop dagger. Right?" Sunset asked carefully, looking between both of them.
=====***=====
It was a prop dagger. An extraordinarily sharp one. Sunset shouted in pain and tossed it onto the ground on instinct, immediately wishing she had just grabbed the handle with her other hand. She tried to step on it, but it clattered over the ground and slid under one of the chairs like a cornered animal.
"Careful, darling," Rarity warned, though that wasn't exactly helpful advice. Fluttershy stood in the back corner, near where they had piled the disspelled props. Only two were left.
"I'm not going to lose to a disembodied knife," Sunset huffed, quickly looking at the shallow cut in her palm. It wasn't worse than a papercut, but still more than any school theatre prop should even do.
The dagger shifted, clattering over the floor without leaving its advantageous spot. Sunset kept her eyes on it while she started to slip her arms out of her leather jacket. Once she had it properly in hand, she quickly stepped towards the chair, provoking the prop. As planned, the dagger shot out towards her. She tried to close her jacket around it, unsure for a panic-filled second whether it had slipped out somewhere, before she could close her hand around it, wriggling but unable to harm her through the leather.
"I got it," she announced with a relieved sigh, letting down her guard for the last clattering thing to come rolling towards her. Knocking over a half-empty water bottle, the carved wooden sceptre threw itself in her direction once it was close enough.
Sunset scrambled to get up while still holding on to the dagger, but Rarity already stepped in front of her. She raised her hands as if to try and catch the sceptre, but it never even reached her. A similar shape than her first creation, but large enough to count as a shield, appeared before her palms, stopping the assault short with a dull thud.
Fluttershy scrambled forward and grabbed the item with both hands. Rarity quickly uncapped her marker and managed to draw the rune on it while it was jittering in her friend's grasp.
Uncovering just the hilt and trying to draw on the small dagger while it was still trying to escape was cause for some more frustration, but after some struggling, it was finally still. Sunset took a deep, shuddering breath and shook out her jacket.
"Um... go team?" Fluttershy said quietly, weakly raising a fist, cutting through the stressed silence.
=====***=====
The group sat in silence on the steps outside the front doors. Sunset was lying on her back at the top of the stairs, her jacket bunched up as a makeshift pillow. The other half of the team had done a good job catching the enchanted balls, but trying to disspell each one individually had been a struggle. She had bruises on her fingers, a small bandage wrapped over her palm, and her hair and top were slowly drying from getting sprayed by the drinking fountain several times during her fight to get close enough to draw the rune on the side.
"This has gotta stop," AJ said firmly after a while, being met with tired affirmations from the others.
"Three in one day," Rarity said thoughtfully, checking her hair in a compact mirror.
"More like a dozen in a day!" Rainbow added, still holding an ice pack to the side of her face. At least her nose had stopped bleeding.
"I know, it's so exciting!" Pinkie called out. Four pairs of eyes burrowed into her. "Ugh, who am I kidding, this was a mess."
"At least we learned something." Sunset sat up and rubbed her neck. "Rarity picked up a different kind of magic than I did. And even though Fluttershy and Pinkie never learned, I don't know how to explain their abilities otherwise."
"I just... always could." Fluttershy sat on the bottom step, her arms wrapped around her knees. She'd gotten away with no bruises or cuts, but didn't seem any less shaken. "No one ever really believed me, though."
"So, we all get different magic powers?" Rainbow chimed in again, checking the ice pack for any new blood stains.
"I don't know. The book has descriptions of spells and all that, I learned the rune and how to sense magic, but it looks like different things come naturally to us."
"Then about time you share, isn't it?" Rainbow sat up properly and looked back to Sunset over her shoulder.
"Right. Are you girls feeling up to meditation today?" She was met with uncertain mumbles. "Then, let's postpone until tomorrow. It can't be as bad as today, right?"
"The auditions are tomorrow," Rarity said more cheerfully, "And thanks to us, they won't end in disaster."
"It's almost like we're school heroes," Rainbow grinned.
"Yeah, except no one's gonna believe us," Applejack pointed out.
"Then that's settled. We'll go over magic again after the auditions." Sunset picked up her jacket and stood up. "I'll see you girls tomorrow."
She headed down the steps, past all of them, getting goodbyes in varying degrees of warmth. She waved as she tossed the jacket over her shoulder and carried her backpack in the other hand. The smile she gave the others remained with her as she started heading down the sidewalk. It had been a rough day, but she had spent all of it with them. Circumstances aside, it felt like she really had friends again. And she had almost forgotten that feeling.
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I liked that chapter and all the small objects coming to live and our heroes defeating them plus them getting now the new abilities. It didn't feel rushed for me and the flow was good ^^
Jumping props and balls would be noticeable, unless they did it during a time no one would see them. But otherwise I doubt that, even if no one saw them, after showing off their own magic no one would believe them
But it's getting worse now!!!
At least she's not to seriously hurt.