A Sign of Things to Come
“Great work, Twilight.” Sunset smiled encouragingly. “Now ... concentrate. See how far you can hold that boulder out. Push your limits.”
“I'm trying.” I scowled as I telekinetically lifted a small boulder around fifteen yards away, inching it a little further. Every little bit I pushed was more and more strenuous. It seemed to help when I held my hand out, but I was definitely near my limit.
“I know you are.” Sunset measured out the distance between me and the boulder with a measuring tape. “And I know it isn't easy, trust me. I spent years learning magic, so I know all about this. But you aren't going to get any better at controlling your magic unless you push your limits.”
That was true, and it was why we had come to Applejack’s family farm to practice my newfound telekinesis. She had a fallow field that was perfect for us to test our abilities, and we were lucky to have it; Pinkie’s explosive powers was more than enough cause for concern, and the field was now a patchwork of holes, broken boulders, and dug up earth thanks to our experiments. It looked more like a war zone than a farm. We had gathered quite a bit do useful data on everyone’s abilities thanks to experimentation, not to mention the bonus of everyone getting a better handle on how their magic worked, but part of me did feel bad about how much we were tearing up part of Applejack’s property.
“I understand all of that,” I told Sunset, trying to keep the irritation out of my tone. “That’s why I wanted to do this.” It was certainly better than accidentally floating things around home or breaking objects like I had the first few days after getting back from Camp Everfree. That had lead to some very awkward conversations with my parents as I tried to avoid the whole magic issue. That wasn't something I wanted to talk with them about quite yet.
Sunset scribbled on her clipboard and then turned on her cellphone’s stopwatch app. “Okay, hold the boulder there for as long as you can. I'd like to see if we can increase the range and duration of your telekinesis.”
“It's worth a shot.” Even if holding the boulder in place was starting to cause me a headache. Droplets of sweat trickled down my brow as I kept up the effort. Still, we had come out here to do some practice. No sense putting that time to waste.
“So how are you feeling right now?” Sunset asked.
“Alright, but it's definitely harder holding up at this range.” My concentration momentarily waved and I grunted with effort as I caught the boulder just short of the ground. “Within ten yards I don't feel much of a difference, but once I get out to fifteen I'm definitely feeling the strain.”
“Is that so?” Sunset jotted some more notes down, a contemplative frown on her face. “That's interesting. That’s different from how it was for me when I was a unicorn.”
“How so?” I raised an eyebrow, my curiosity piqued. I'd asked Sunset about Equestria in the past, of course, but there was a lot of material to cover, and Sunset was sometimes pretty reluctant to discuss certain topics.
“Just that range usually isn't an issue for unicorn magic,” Sunset explained. “It depends on the unicorn in question and what sort of spell you're casting, but normally a unicorn wouldn't have to worry about this short a range to their magic. Of course, with telekinesis ... well, you don't want to hear a lecture.”
“Actually, I wouldn't mind hearing all about that.” I smile sheepishly. “I did spend a lot to time trying to prove that magic exists, and now that I'm talking to an actual expert...”
Sunset let out a weary sigh. “Of course. Maybe after we finish this up.” She pointedly lifted her clipboard, checking her cellphone for the time.
“Oh, right. Practice first, other stuff later.” Sunset was using up her free time to help me get using my magic down, and it would be really rude to waste her time. Feeling slightly embarrassed about letting myself get off track, I turned my full attention on the boulder, a task that was not getting easier with time. “Sorry if I'm being a bit annoying. It's just that all of this is a bit crazy, and I'm still trying get a solid grasp on it all. The magic, you being from another dimension where everyone was a magical pony, monsters from magical land of sapient equines, us getting these powers... It's nuts.”
“A bit, yeah.” Sunset gave me a half-smile. “But also really cool. For a while there I was worried I was going to be stuck in a world without any magic, so actually getting these powers is pretty great.”
I smiled back, encouraged by her enthusiasm. “I think so. I mean, other than the scary transformations where people become possessed by magical powers they barely understand and try and take over the world, or break the barriers between dimensions, or terrorize a bunch of kids going to camp, and—”
“Whoa, whoa, hold up there,” Sunset interrupted. She pointed at the ground beneath the boulder. “How about you put that down for now? That's good enough for the time period.”
I winced, putting the boulder down as I awaited the oncoming lecture.
Sunset must have seen something in my reaction, because she smiled as she placed a supportive gloved hand on my shoulder. “Magic can be a bit scary sometimes, yeah. But that only happens when someone can't control their power, or if it's in the hands of the wrong people. It’s really no different than anything else.”
“Um, right. I guess.” I rubbed my arm as I remembered Midnight Sparkle and the incident with Gaia Everfree. “It's still a bit scary, and I haven’t quite gotten the hang of it. I was trying to discover magic for such a long time, but now that I'm actually seeing it in action ... I don't know.”
“It’s a bit of an adjustment?”
I nodded. “It was a pretty rough transition into the world of magic after I screwed up the way I did.”
“Hey, you worked it all out.” She squeezed my shoulder. “You’re with the good guys now, and all practice will make sure you don't lose control again. You'll be fine, trust me.”
“I guess.” I let out a long sigh. “Even if I'm worried I'll start abusing these new powers.” I picked up a trio of rocks with my magic and twirled them around my hand. Telekinesis was the only magic I really had, not counting how I could fly when I ponied up. On the surface, being able to levitate objects didn't sound like a lot, but there were a lot of nasty ways someone could abuse that.
Sunset patted my shoulder and withdrew her hand. “As long as you're worried about abusing them, you're probably okay. It's when you stop worrying that you need to be worried.” After a moment Sunset added, “That sounded smarter in my head.”
I snickered. “They can't all be winners, right? Why I like to prepare all my speeches ahead of time.”
“In my defense, I've had a long day.” Sunset stretched out her arms as she yawned. “Rarity wanted some help with her shield powers, then Rainbow asked me to help her girlfriend get a handle on her magic, and now...”
“Sorry if I'm being a bother.” Friends weren't something I had in abundance, and the idea that I was annoying one of the few I had didn't sit well with me. Especially when Sunset had been so nice to me.
Sunset waved me off. “It's fine, I like helping. Though it would be nice if nobody else got crazy magical powers for a while.”
“That would be convenient, wouldn't it?”
A long silence fell over us before Sunset broke it. “I just jinxed us, didn't I?”
“How has our luck been thus far?”
Sunset pressed her palm to her forehead with a groan. “Good point. Ugh.”
I sighed, dropping the rocks orbiting my hand. If this trend continued, we were more likely to see an increase in the number of magical incidents than a decrease, with Canterlot High being the focal point of that activity. All my data thus far suggested as much. “We're doomed, aren't we?”
Sunset shook her head. “It might get rough at times, but we've managed in the past.”
“That's true enough,” I conceded. “These new magical powers give us a lot more options than we had. No offense, but from what you told me, using the Elements of Harmony to blast things with friendship rainbows doesn’t strike me as the most reliable method to deal with monsters, especially when you have to set up a full concert in order to use the Elements.”
“It happens when we need it, not when we want it.”
“I would prefer something that can be used on command.”
Sunset nodded in agreement. “I do like having powers we can use reliably and consistently.”
“How are yours going, by the way?” I asked. “I've been so wrapped up in my own practice that I haven't asked you.”
Sunset stiffened. “They're working well, though...” Her eyes flicked to the glove covered hands.
My teeth clenched in a grimace. Sunset had been pretty enthusiastic about everyone else getting magic, but she seemed a lot more reserved with her own ability to read minds. “So you've confirmed that your powers activate purely by touch?”
“There's mental effort involved too,” she clarified. “But I'm not 100% certain of my control. I can't be sure what I'm going to see when I go poking around someone’s head, and that’s a bit of a problem.”
I crossed my arms over my chest as I thought the problem over. “Think practice would help? I know practicing my magic has helped a lot. I'm not accidentally floating things around anymore, at least when I'm conscious. Still working on not doing it when I'm asleep, though.”
Sunset puckered her lips out in a frown. “Probably, but considering that involves getting inside someone else's head, it's a bit tricky to do. Not to mention ... well, sometimes I learn more than I'd like to.” She shivered. “Like what happened with Cloud.”
I winced. Sunset had learned a few facts about Cloud and Rainbow that were a quite a bit more intimate than she’d wanted to know. “Yeah, that does make things tricky. You would have to practice with someone who doesn't mind you poking around in their head.”
Considering everyone had thoughts and memories they’d rather keep to themselves, it was going to be difficult to find someone Sunset could practice with. Invasions of privacy were probably inevitable with this type of magic, and it would take a lot of trust between Sunset and whomever she practiced her magic with to keep the practice from becoming a disaster. Especially when the private thoughts about what that person really thought about Sunset were likely to come up. I knew enough about my own private thoughts to know how awkward that could quickly become.
The issues with her mind reading were probably another reason why Sunset barely had any skin showing. As things stood, it sounded like it was difficult to keep the thoughts of anyone else she had direct contact with out. That had to make traveling through the crowded halls of Canterlot High difficult.
Sunset leaned against a dense post and watched as a couple of Applejack’s horses grazed on the grass. “At least when it comes to Equestrian Magical Ethics, mind-reading is pretty strongly frowned upon unless there's a good reason for it. My power seem to be safe—Equestrian mind magic can be dangerous if it's done wrong.”
“How so?” The magic between our world and Equestria didn't seem to correlated very well, at best, but it might give some insight into what we were dealing with.
“Just...” Sunset frowned as she pulled her thoughts together. “Well imagine the mind is a giant library. If the magic's not done precisely, it's like someone going in and pulling all the books off the shelf, putting half of them back where they don't belong, and leaving the rest all over the place.”
“So it can mess up your head?” I asked to clarify. She nodded in confirmation. “That ... could be bad then. I could see why it's looked down on in Equestria if you could badly scramble someone’s head like that. Though it does seem like the magics of our world and Equestria are completely different.”
Sunset let out an annoyed huff. “Yeah, I'm still figuring out exactly how. It was even worse when we only had the magic of the Elements of Harmony to work with, since they're working by a set of rules even Princess Twilight hasn't completely figured it yet.”
I rubbed my chin. “It could be a matter of a difference of species. Assuming it doesn't come down to there being different dimensions. If not both. Our attempts to study out magic isn't made any easier by the fact that each of us are showing completely different powers. The only common thing between us is that all our new abilities seem to be monothemed, for the most part.”
Sunset nodded. “Yeah, that's part of it. It's just totally different. Most unicorns in Equestria had a specialization, but they could still do other things.”
“Naturally I just have my telekinesis,” I said. “Except I can also fly if I pony up, for whatever reason. Something that only seems to happen with me, Fluttershy, and Rainbow.”
“Yeah, since you have wings for some reason.” She hummed contemplatively. “Maybe because Princess Twilight does?”
“That's the only working theory I've got,” I said, not happy with the somewhat unscientific answer. “No other explanation seems to work thus far with the data we currently have.”
Sunset scratched her cheek. “And that part seems to be unique to us, since Cloud doesn't pony up when she uses her magic. Or at least, she hasn't yet.”
“Maybe that has to do with the medallions we got at Camp Everfree?” I suggested. “Or maybe the Elements of Harmony? We still don't know exactly how they work with ponying up.”
Cloud had just recently started showing her own magical powers. Though we could only really guess why that had happened, and I still wasn’t sure what to make of it yet. If more people started showing up with magical powers, who knew where it was going to end?
“Maybe, given Cloud's magic was contagious from Rainbow.” Sunset shrugged helplessly. “I really don't understand this world's magic.”
I sighed in sympathy with that sentiment. “That makes two of us.”
“So yeah, I came up with this cool new plan for how to win next week's game,” Rainbow Dash said with her usual level of enthusiasm whenever she talked about sports. “I ran it by Cloud earlier, and she thought it was awesome! This so gonna be radical!”
“That's ... good then,” I hazarded. We were at the end of our social studies class, with the teacher handing out the test we had taken the previous week, and Rainbow had taken the opportunity to talk about the soccer team. In truth, a lot of what she was talking about went right over my head, considering I wasn’t very familiar with soccer. It just wasn’t something I had found a reason to study thus far.
“It's gonna be so cool!” Rainbow’s feet thumped against the floor as she suppressed a squeal. “You'll be there for the game, right?”
“Um.” I looked to Rarity, who was sitting a couple of desks away from us for confirmation. This sounded like something you would do for a friend, but I wasn’t completely sure about that. “Sure?”
Rarity nodded. “You know we try to be there for every game you're in, Rainbow.”
“I'll try and work it into my schedule.” I pulled out my phone to make sure I could fit the game in. Scheduling had been difficult enough before I came to Canterlot High, but now I had to juggle in all the social activities I wanted to do. That was made doubly difficult consider those types of things were often much harder to predict ahead of time, like when I needed to study for a test or have a project ready.
“Cool.” A smirk grew on Rainbow face. “We can always use cheerleaders.”
I quirked an eyebrow at the change in topic. “Cheerleaders?”
“Yeah. You know—pom poms, cheering, all that stuff.” Rainbow waggled her eyebrows suggestively.
My eyes widened. “Oh no, nonono! I'm no cheerleader. Getting into that outfit, with the pom poms, and cheering in front of everyone...” My cheeks started burning at the mere idea.
Rainbow chuckled. “Didn't figure you would be.”
My eyes narrowed. “You're teasing me, aren't you?”
“Would I do that?” Rainbow asked with all the innocence of a cat with canary feathers in its mouth.
“Previous evidence says yes.”
Rarity rolled her eyes. “She is a bit of a tease, yes. Just try and not to mind it.”
I let out a huff. “As long as she doesn't expect me to actually be a cheerleader.” That was about the last thing I wanted to do. I'd probably only get laughed at if I tried.
“Nah, I don't think you'd be good at it anyway.” After a moment Rainbow added, “No offense.”
“None taken.” My attention was pulled away from my friends when the teacher placed my test on my desk.
F.
An F. I had earned an F! I’d failed the test?! How?! This wasn’t possible! I never failed! I couldn’t remember the last time I’d gotten a B. But this test was covered in angry red ink as my mistakes were laid before me.
This was a disaster. What was I going to do? What could I do?! The world started to spin as I considered all of the terrible consequences for messing up a test like this.
“Twilight?” Rarity asked, a note of concern in her voice. “Are you okay? You’re looking a little pale.”
From desk next to me, Trixie leaned over to look at my test. “Ouch, isn’t that shame? Trixie thought that test was easy. She got a perfect grade!”
“I-I need to go,” I blurted as the school bell rang—shooting to my feet and shoved my test into my backpack. I needed to go ... somewhere that wasn’t here. Anywhere but here.
“Hey, wait up!” Rainbow said as I bolted past her, bumping into a couple other students.
Next thing I knew I was in the girls restroom, my breaths coming in ragged gasps and a stinging in my eyes. My head spun as the reality of what happened crashed down on me. I had failed. Me. My parents were going to kill me. After all my assurances that wasn't going to screw around after transferring to Canterlot High, now I was bringing home an F. What would they do to me? Ground me? Tell me to stop seeing my friends? Pull me from school and send me back to Crystal Prep?
“Twilight?”
I jerked and spun to see Rarity standing behind me with a frown on her face. I hadn't even heard her enter. “Rarity?”
“Are you alright, darling?” she asked gently as she stepped closer to me.
I opened my mouth, by my throat clenched up, choking out the response. How could I talk about my failure like this? Could I? Would my friends think I was an idiot if they found out I’d failed?
“It's okay.” Rarity wrapped an arm around my shoulders and drew me close. “We can talk about whatever is bothering you. Just take a moment to relax.”
Rainbow entered and closed the bathroom door behind her, keeping her hand on the handle. “What's going on? Other kids are going to want in here soon.”
I knew I wasn't going to get away without telling them what happened. They wouldn't be satisfied until I did, and it wasn't like I could shut myself into the restroom forever and hide from the truth.
“I, I, I...” My shoulders hunched and I rasped out, “I failed.”
Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “What, did you get an A-minus?”
“Rainbow,” Rarity chided.
I whine escaped my throats and I shook my head.
Rainbow braced her back against the wall as she kept a hand on the restroom door handle. “Hey, even your worst grades are way better than mine. Don't sweat it so much.”
“W-what did y-you get?” I choked out.
“A C-minus,” Rainbow grumbled. “Cloud busted my butt about studying.”
“I got an F!” A sob escaped my throat, and my shoulders started shaking as tears streaked down my cheeks. Even Rainbow had done better than me, and she always seemed to be struggling with her classes I worked hard, I hadn't slacked, I knew the material... What had gone wrong?
“What?” Rainbow blinked a couple of times. “You got an F? But ... that doesn’t make any sense! You're a total nerd!”
“Rainbow!” Rarity glared at Rainbow as she gently pulled me away from the doorway. “Could you make sure nobody bothers us? I'm trying to make Twilight feel better.”
Rainbow grumbled something I couldn't hear under her breath. “Fiiine.”
As if on cue, someone pulled on the other side of the restroom door. “Hey, let me in!” someone called out. “I need to go!”
“We’re having a private conversation!” Rainbow shot back, keeping a firm grasp on the door. “Buzz off and find another restroom!”
There was another attempt to pull the door open. “I’m gonna tell a teacher!”
“See if I care!” Rainbow growled. “Waste your time tattling to a teacher or go find another restroom. You can’t do both before next class starts.”
There was a last pull on the door, then silence.
Rarity guided me to the far wall and gently rubbed my back. “Now then, I know this is terrible news, but it isn’t the end of the world.”
I wiped at my stinging eyes. “This is a disaster! This is going to destroy my grade point average, and that's going to endanger the independent study program I wanted. My parents are going to be so upset with me when they find out. They were already really unsure about me transferring to Canterlot High, and now they're going to think I'm slacking because I’m putting a social life over my studies. And colleges are going to see my grades dropped after coming to this school and wonder if I have bad judgment. And what if everyone starts asking questions about all the magic stuff? What do I tell them? Do I be honest about how I went mad with magic and nearly destroyed the school over some dumb school event? No college will take in a student with that type of record! And-and-and...” My breath started becoming ragged as my chest tightened.
“Twilight, darling, calm down.” Rarity made calming down motions with her hands. “It's just a single bad grade. It's not the end of the world.”
Rainbow spoke up from the doorway. “I've bombed tests before, and I'm still awesome.”
Their reassurances didn't make me feel all that much better, though their presence kinda did. But I had no idea what I was going to do about this bad grade. This had never happened to me before. I studied really hard specifically to make sure something like this didn't happen.
Once my breaths started calming down, I spoke slowly and deliberately. “But this is everything. I can't get bad grades. My entire future depends on getting good grades. It's what I'm actually good at.”
“Well, let's have a look over it and see how bad it is.” Rarity smiled. “Maybe there was some sort of mistake.”
That didn't seem terribly likely. It was possible the teacher might have made a couple of mistakes due to the repetitive nature of grading, but enough to make that big a difference for my grade? It seemed unlikely. Still, I didn't see much of a reason to be stubborn. It wasn't going to get me anywhere.
So with a shaky hand, I pulled the test out of my backpack and handed it to Rarity. “I don't know what went wrong. I studied, I went to classes, I understood the material. This doesn't make sense. I thought I aced this test.”
Rarity’s eyes scanned the test, a befuddled frown crossing her face as she did so. “Twilight, this is a perfect test.”
I blinked. “Excuse me?”
“Here, look.” She gave the test back to me. “You even got the bonus question. That's a hundred and five percent.”
I looked at the test, and to my shock, she was right. Gone was all the red ink. The A+ was as plain as day to see. “But-but I failed. I saw the F!”
I reached in my backpack to make sure I hadn’t accidentally pulled out the wrong test, but there weren't any loose papers in there. All my schoolwork was nicely organized in a series of folders, each dedicated to a single class, and a quick check confirmed that nothing was out of place. A double-check of the test confirmed it was the one I had received just a little bit earlier. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. I hadn't accidentally been given someone else’s test; I had the right test, and all my answers were exactly as I remembered them. What in the world was going on?
Rarity but her bottom lip as she stared at me. “Well darling, you can see the grade right here.”
I couldn't bring myself to say anything for a painfully long moment as I looked between Rarity and Rainbow, each of them now giving me the type of frown you only gave to a crazy person spouting gibberish. “This doesn't make sense. I know what I saw. I'm not crazy.”
Because that's exactly what someone sane and rational says. Way to go, Twilight. Now they definitely had to think I was off my rocker.
“Riiiiiight.” Rainbow shot a loaded look to Rarity.
Rarity placed a gentle hand on my shoulder. “Maybe you need to go to the nurse's office? You do look a bit pale.”
I let out a long sigh. “I guess there’s no talking you two out of escorting me to the nurse?”
“Nope. You did kinda freak out on us there,” Rainbow pointed out with her usual brand of subtlety.
“Let's have Nurse Redheart look you over, just to be safe,” Rarity insisted, squeezing my shoulder. “Come on, we’ll help you there.”
“Alright.” I limply let them escort me to the nurse’s office. I just wish I knew what had happened.
Mercifully, it was already near the end of the school day when I went to the nurse’s office, and Nurse Redheart seemed content to let me relax in her office until the bell rang. Either Rainbow and Rarity insisting that I hadn't been feeling well had convince Redheart to let me skip the rest of my classes, or I really did look like that much of a wreck. It probably helped my case that I was normally a good student who wasn't the type to skip classes.
Not that I particularly enjoyed missing them. Not after what had caused me to come here to start with. I didn't feel particularly great right at that moment, but I was pretty sure most of that was just psychological in nature. Maybe everything had been a result of stress? It could have all sorts of health implications from what I had read. But I hadn't felt particularly stressed before I got my test back. In fact, I had been confident I had gotten an A for the test. And it wasn’t like talking with Rainbow and Rarity was causing me any kind of significant stress.. Nothing that should have triggered some sort of psychological episode.
Maybe I was just going crazy? Could I be cracking under the daily strain of life? There were certainly plenty examples of that, even before considering the possible side effects of magic. Sunset, Gloriosa, and I had all lost our minds thanks to magic. Was this simply something that was common for those who used it, like an allergy? Only instead of developing a rash of some other biological reaction it was largely a psychological reaction to the new powers being introduced. Was I just a ticking time bomb before I went off the deep end and—
And I had to remind myself of Sunset’s advice not to get myself wrapped up in that type of thinking. It wasn't healthy, even if it was all too easy to do.
As the school day came to an end, I was just as confused as when I had been when I first arrived at the nurse’s office. I hoped nobody would gossip about me and my freakout. One of the last things I needed was for my peers to think I was on the verge of losing it again.
Even though I didn't feel all that great, I decided to go ahead and head to the Sugarcube Corner to meet up with my friends. Maybe that would help me feel better. It was either that or head home to sulk, and that didn't sound like the best way to handle this.
I ended up meeting Rarity at the door to Sugarcube Corner as we were both about to enter. She looked me over and frowned slightly. “Still worried about that test, darling?”
Rarity seemed to have a pretty good sense for what people were thinking, so there didn't seem much point in lying. “Is it that obvious?”
Rarity put a hand on my shoulder and smiled. “Just try and put it into the past, all right? I talked with Rainbow, and she agreed not to mention what happened so we can avoid any embarrassment.”
I sighed and nodded. “I'll try.”
That seemed to satisfy her. “How about we head inside and just relax for a bit? It'll make you feel better.”
“Alright.” I opened the door for us and we entered the Sugarcube.
Sunset, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Pinkie had already grabbed a booth and had their orders in front of them. Though something seemed ... off with everyone. Normally everyone was excitedly chatting when I arrived for get-togethers like this, but now everyone was completely silent. Sunset was staring down at her smoothie, listlessly poking it with her straw. Applejack had some good brooding going on as she hid her face under her hat. For her part, Fluttershy looked between the others, sitting quietly with Angel Bunny in her lap. Pinkie seemed her usual peppy self, her full concentration on a big ice cream sundae in front of her.
I took my place at the table. “Hey everyone,” I said, the welcome stilted despite my attempt to sound cheerful. I got a equally stilted greeting in return from the group.
“Whoa, who died?” Rainbow came in behind me and Rarity and sat opposite of me in the booth.
“Not me!” Pinkie scooped a spoonful of ice cream into her mouth and hummed with enjoyment. “I've been waiting all week for this sundae! I can't go dying now until I've eaten every teeny tiny little bit.”
Pinkie’s cheerful demeanor made me wonder if she'd ever felt depressed a day in her life. She must have, no one could be that happy all the time, but if she had ever shown it I hadn't seen it.
Fluttershy looked around the table. “Is something the matter?”
Sunset poked at her smoothy some more. “I don't want to talk about it.”
“Aw c'mon Sunny, that's no way to be!” Pinkie poked Sunset in the arm. “We're your friends, you can tell us anything!”
Sunset’s grunted noncommittally.
“If it's any consolation, I had a rather beastly day as well.” Rarity cleared her throat and drew herself straight. “The less said about what happened at the pool, the better.”
Applejack covered her mouth with a hand as she suppressed a laugh, eliciting a glare from Rarity.
Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“Nuthin'.” It was obviously not ‘nuthin,’ because Applejack put on what was probably the worst poker face I had ever seen. There were cartoon bank robbers wearing a prison outfit carrying a giant bag with a money sign on it that looked more innocent than Applejack.
“Sounds like I'm not the only one to have a bad day,” I observed. There certainly seemed to be a pall over my circle of friends.
Rarity bit her lip and leaned forward as she lowered her voice. “I trust you'll all be discreet?” When she got confirmations from all of us, she said, “I ... accidently went out in my underwear instead of my bathing suit!”
Rainbow choked on empty air before breaking into a laugh. She quickly covered her mouth with both her hands and hunched her shoulders as the people in the booths next to us stared in our direction. For my own part, I felt my cheeks burn. I wonder how in the world Rarity could make a mistake like that? She was normally incredibly observant.
“Whoa. That doesn't sound like you at all, Rarity!” Pinkie exclaimed.
“It was utterly mortifying!” Rarity swooned, forcing Applejack to catch her.
Applejack rolled her eyes as she held her up. “Why’re you all hot and bothered? Ah've seen yer bathin' suit, an' compared to that yer undies were proper modest. Ah’m surprised the school lets you go around swimmin’ in that thing.”
“But it wasn't a bathing suit!” Rarity righted herself and crossed her arms over her chest as she fixed Applejack with a glower. “It was underwear!”
“Underwear for underwater!” Pinkie giggled. “It still works.”
“But Ah—if it covers more...” Applejack scratched the side of her head. “Ah don' get it.”
“That's still pretty embarrassing.” I didn’t even want to think about what it would be like if that happened to me. I’d probably die of embarrassment.
“Oh man, that's...” Rainbow suppressed another outburst of laughter and wiped her eyes. If she noticed Rarity’s furious glower, she didn’t acknowledge it. “Alright, everybody share up. If anyone's got something half that good...”
I hunched my shoulders. I didn’t like the idea of admitting my own incident, but Rarity had already done so, and I didn’t want her to be alone in this. Not when she had helped me earlier that day. “I, um, thought I failed a test when I didn't. I thought I saw an F on my test when I'd really earned a A.”
“Hey! Well done!” Pinkie scooped another spoonful of into her mouth. “And don’t worry about that oopsie. You probably just misread it and had yourself a little panic, no biggie!”
“That doesn't sound so bad,” Fluttershy agreed. “You still got an A.”
I sighed. “Probably.”
“Yeah, but how did you make a goof like that?” Rainbow waved in a vague circle. “I mean, you've seen enough A's in your life that I'm pretty sure you're not gonna read it wrong long enough to freak out.”
I groaned and covered my face. “I really wish I knew. I’ve been thinking about it from every angle, and I can’t figure it out.”
“No need to worry about it.” Pinkie patted me on the back. “It's in the past! I had something weird like that happen to me to today.”
Sunset looked up from her smoothly, the first spark of interest in her eyes I had seen thus far. “You too? Like what?”
“Yeah, it was the strangest thing!” Pinkie rubbed her chin as her gaze turned distant. “So I was cooking class and we were gonna make a nice apple pie, I couldn't wait! But when I got the butter out of the fridge, it felt really hot for some reason! I didn't say anything though 'cause I had to get into my baking zone! But then when I took my baking tray out of the oven, it felt super icy cold! It was so weird! Buuut I didn't mind too much. The pie still tasted good.” She licked her lips as she hummed.
Sunset’s eyes narrowed. “You didn't burn your hands or anything, did you?”
“Oh no no no no.” Pinkie vigorously shook her head. “Kitchen safety is the most important thing when cooking. Ever!”
“As long as you're okay then,” Fluttershy said.
“Oh yeah, never take those oven mitts off when handling anything fresh from the oven, even if it happens to be weirdly cold for some reason.” Pinkie shrugged and returned to her sundae.
“Smart call,” Applejack said with a nod, being someone who had plenty of experience with home cooking.
“Any other weird stories to share?” I asked. Pinkie’s story certainly sounded odd. Well, everything involved with Pinkie was odd. But there was a difference between Pinkie being odd, and something odd happening to Pinkie.
Sunset’s hand clenched and her knuckles went white. “I keep seeing my old self in the mirror.”
Applejack frowned. “You mean like th'unicorn you, or...?”
Sunset’s gaze darkened. “The bad times.”
Rainbow winced. “That sucks.” No one else said anything else as Applejack patted Sunset on the shoulder.
I stroked my cheek as I thought things over. “Anyone noticing a pattern here?”
“Hmm... now that you think of it—aah!” Pinkie dropped her spoon and held her head. “Brain freeze!”
Fluttershy patted her back. “Um, are you okay, Pinkie?”
Pinkie groaned. “I ate the ice cream too fast...”
Rainbow reluctantly raised her hand. “And since we're sharing stories, I got my butt absolutely handed to me earlier on the field. Like, worst I've ever done since first grade tryouts.”
“How did that happen?” Fluttershy asked.
“I don't know!” Rainbow waved her hands. “I just ... flubbed it! Every kick, every step, every damn move just went wrong! It was the dumbest thing.”
Sunset’s frown deepened. “I’m going to have to agree with Twilight. There’s definitely a pattern here.”
“Sounds like everyone has experienced something weird today,” I said.
Pinkie rubbed her chin. “I smell a mystery to solve! Maybe ... it's a ghost!
Fluttershy hugged Angel to her chest. “I don’t want to deal with ghosts. They’re scary. What if—”
Fluttershy was interrupted when Angel slipped out of her hug and jumped onto the table. His eyes glowed red, and before any of us could react, his jaws widened, revealing far too many crooked, sharp teeth within a mouth far too big for his head. He growled and hissed, spittle hitting Fluttershy in the face as he snapped at her. Before any of us could react, his teeth came to within a hair’s breath of Fluttershy’s throat as she pushed herself away. She fell out of her chair with a scream.
Rarity also fell out of her chair with a squeal, and I only barely avoided doing the same as everyone else cried out in shock. Rainbow zipped away in a blur, while Applejack grabbed her hat to whack the transformed bunny.
By the time we had all recovered and gotten to our feet, Angel looked normal again, rather than like some hell-beast ready to attack us. He looked around at us, wrinkling his nose at us as he glowered. Nothing happened for a long moment as we all waited for something to happen, but the seconds dragged on with nothing worse happening to us than Angel staring in disapproval at us.
“The crapping crap of craptastic, what just happened?!” Rainbow screamed, more or less saying what I was thinking.
Pinkie scratched the top of her head. “I'm ... at a complete loss!”
“We had all seen that, right?” I asked. “We couldn't have all suffered some kind of mass hallucination, right?”
From a nearby table, Trixie scowled at us over her menu. “Trixie wonders what could possibly cause all of you to react so badly to a rabbit?” Her scowl turn to Angel. “Trixie also thinks having a wild animal in a bakery is a health code violation.”
Fluttershy, breathing heavily and pale as a ghost, turned and ran. The sounds of her sobbing echoing in the Sugarcube before she hit the exit.
“Trixie wonders what could possibly have upset her? Did someone breathe too loudly?” Trixie shrugged and turned back to her menu.
“Shut it, Trixie!” Rainbow snapped.
Trixie rolled her eyes. “Trixie doesn’t need to take this. She’s suddenly not very hungry anymore.” She stood up and made her way to the exit.
Applejack crossed her arms over her chest as she watched Trixie leave. “Charmin' as a beaver's backside, ain’t she?”
“She could be such a nice magician for kids!” Pinkie threw up her hand in exasperation. “Instead she's just a big ol' jerk!”
“I'll be back,” Rainbow announced. “I gonna go after 'Shy.” She zipped out of the Sugarcube in a rainbow blur before any of us could say anything. That’s the issue with something with super speed, it was hard to stop them when they decided to get going.
Sunset frowned thoughtfully. “Just realized ... I saw my old self in the bathroom mirror ... right after Trixie left.”
Rarity gave Sunset a sideway look. “I was in the locker room with her when the ... incident happened.”
Pinkie gasped. “She was in my cooking class!”
“And her desk is right next to mine in my social studies class.” I frowned as I considered the facts. “In fact, she was the only other person to see the F on my test.”
Applejack’s eyes narrowed. “An' Ah'll betcha money Rainbow'll say Trixie was out on the field with her.”
I nodded. “Reminds me when I read something once about once being happenstance, twice being coincidence, and thrice being conspiracy.”
Pinkie gasped again. “A conspiracy?!”
Sunset looked to all of us. “I'd say it at least merits a bit of investigation.”
“We going to talk to Trixie?” I asked to confirm our plan of action.
“If she's the one common factor with all our ... incidents...” Sunset trailed off, letting the obvious hang in the air.
“Won't she just deny it, though?” Pinkie asked. “If she is the cause, anyhoo.”
Applejack nodded. “That's a fair point.”
I looked to Sunset, and idea coming to me. “We have someone who can confirm it either way. At least as long as Trixie knows what's really going on.”
Pinkie slapped a fist into her palm. “Oh yeah! Good thinking.”
Sunset grimaced. “That's ... technically true, but I don't like the idea of breaking into her brain just because we're suspicious.”
“Oh, right...” I slumped down as I remembered the whole ethics issue with Sunset poking around in people's heads.
Rainbow ran back inside the Sugarcube. “Hey Rarity, think you could talk to Fluttershy?” She rubbed the back of her neck. “I caught up with her, but she’s pretty upset right now. She can't even handle little kids in trick-or-great costume. Something genuinely scary is too much for her, and now she’s crying and … and I'm not good with touchy-feely stuff.”
Rarity nodded. “Of course, I’d be happy to—”
“Great!” Rainbow grabbed onto her arm, and they were gone in a blur and a scream, leaving us to our conversation. A few seconds later, Rainbow was back with a self-satisfied smile. “There, that should take care of that. So have you eggheads figured out what's going on? Because I'd really like to punch whatever made Fluttershy cry in the face.”
“We think it might be Trixie, but we don't have much in the way of proof yet.” Sunset said that like it had become a normal part of our lives—which to be fair, it pretty much had. “We could keep an eye on her and see if she does anything weird. Or worst case, confront her. She'd deny everything if she's guilty, but I don't think she's a good enough liar to trick us. Big difference between lying like a guilty person covering your tracks and telling the truth and being utterly baffled by the accusation.”
“Trixie hasn't struck me as ... subtle,” I said.
Rainbow snorted derisively. “Yeah, I bet if we ask her if she did something to us, she'll just laugh triumphantly about how The Great and Powerful Trixie has outsmarted us all and then drop a smoke bomb to try and make a lame getaway.”
“Except she might have magic powers,” I cautioned, “And ones we don't understand yet. If she does have access to magic, we don't know where they came from, how they work, their limits, and all the other nuts and bolts of her abilities.”
Sunset frowned. “That would change things. We could be walking into a lot of trouble if this goes bad.”
“Yeah, no kidding.” Rainbow's eyes slowly narrowed and she turned to Sunset. “Wait a minute ... you said Cloud got her powers because she and I ... uh ... you know... Wouldn't that mean one of you, um, with Trixie of all people?”
It had been Sunset’s theory that Cloud had gotten magic powers herself due to her and Rainbow being ... intimate at Camp Everfree, when we first got all these powers. Though that was still an educated guess for why it happened.
Sunset’s gaze slowly looked at each of us in turn. “Either my theory needs a bit of refinement or one of us has terrible taste.”
I felt my cheeks burn at the suggestion. “It definitely wasn't me.” I hadn't even held someone’s hand romantically, much less done anything more risqué.
“Not me,” Rainbow was quick to say. “I'm already with Cloud. Besides, Trixie isn't nearly radical enough for my standards.”
Applejack glowered at Rainbow. “Don't look my way, Ah can't stand the braggart. And Rarity has standards, so don’t go pointing th’ finger at her either.”
“Wasn't me!” Pinkie said in a manner normally reserved for saying ‘not it.’ “Thought I thiiink if Trixie did that sorta thing, we'd definitely know about it. There'd be rumors at least!”
Rainbow glowered Sunset’s way. “Your theory needs work.”
I raised my hand. “All in favor of saying that Sunset's theory is a bust for the sake of our pride and sanity?”
Everyone was pretty quick to raise their hands alongside my own. Even Sunset sighed and put her hand up. “Even I'll grant that one.”
“So we need a gameplan for how to deal with Trixie,” I said, trying to get the conversation back to the topic at hand. We would figure out how Trixie got magic after we found out if she really had some form of magic first. “I'm not sure about trailing her for a long time to see what she does. That's pretty illegal, and confronting her at least sounds like a faster way to handle this.”
Sunset conceded the point with a nod. “With her powers, splitting up makes us vulnerable, and letting her run around doing whatever she wants just lets her cause more trouble for us and whoever else crosses her path.”
Pinkie blinked and looked between us. “Woah, we're not thinking of a fight are we?!”
“I don't want a fight ... but she might,” Sunset said grudgingly. “And if she does I wanna be ready. If she gets confronted by enough of us, she might back down and stop whatever it is she’s doing.”
“We can try and talk her into not doing this anymore?” I found my hands wring my skirt and I made them stop. “I would prefer that, really. That fight with Gaia Everfree wasn't exactly fun.”
Applejack grunted neutrally. “Assuming we can get through that thick head of hers.”
“And if she doesn't listen, then we kick her butt for making Fluttershy cry.” Rainbow punched her palm. “You know, for friendship and stuff.”
Pinkie raised her sundae. “For friendship and stuff!”
“For friendship and stuff,” the rest of us repeated with varying levels of enthusiasm.
I could only hope that we were making the right decision.