My Little Changeling: Friendship is Survival

--Canterlot Intruder--

--Part IV--

I tapped my hoof against the desk before me. My stomach tied itself into a knot in response to my confliction. On one hand, if I reunited them I risked being found out; on the other, their situation just hit too close to home for me.

A harsh breath escaped my nostrils. There was only one option I could accept, I would help them. Hopefully a way would present itself that didn't actually involve throwing myself into the middle of it.

Mirror Eclipse hadn't really said anything for the last few minutes. I was surprised, she seemed so extroverted. Then again, she was really focused on grading those papers.

“You seem to be in a bit of a rush,” I said, pointing my hoof towards the papers in front of her.

Mirror gained a crooked smile as she responded, “Oh, well. I... 'may' have procrastinated on getting these done earlier.”

...You “may” have?

My eyebrow raised as I opened my mouth to question her before deciding to just let it go. At the very least it saved me from having to be questioned on my non existent knowledge of magic.

Speaking of which...

I snatched one of the extra textbooks that sat in the back of the classroom. It wasn't clear how much time I would have before Silver Chain finished his conversation, but I figured it was a good opportunity to see what I would have to be able to do in this class.

As I flipped the book open I learned something, when you have been given the option of laying your head down on a desk or studying when a teacher is present it implies to said teacher that you are quite studious, rather than just desperately trying to make up for years of lost time.

“You must really like this subject,” Mirror Eclipse beamed.

This will not end well.

“Uh, it's... Okay. I guess,” I mumbled, praying she would just drop it.

“Uh-huh, I'll be looking forward to seeing what you can do in class.”

My stomach clinched in response to what may as well have been a threat.

Relief swept through me when I found that the first two thirds of the book was mostly just information about magic, not instructions on how to use it. Evidently the magic class was going to be more like having an extra history.

I quickly skimmed through the first few chapters. A couple of familiar names popped up that I had seen in the cutie mark book, but I didn't really know much about them.

The final third of the book contained information on actual spells and how to use them. I made a mental note of the ones that were described as 'general purpose', the term seemed to imply I should know how to use them.

Of course I didn't...

Better hope I'm a fast learner.

Silver Chain's dialogue with the distraught couple took quite a while to settle down. I didn't get to see how the father was doing when he left, but there wasn't any shouting by the end; I assumed he must have calmed down before leaving.

“Brighter?” Silver Chain asked as he walked in.

“They left?” I asked, not looking up from my book.

“They did.”

I didn't pay much attention during the rest of the tour, that talk with Gale's mother drained me; I couldn't bring myself to care about my classes. The tour still served its purpose though, I knew where I would be headed in the morning.

I plopped down onto my bed when I was dropped back off in my room. Multiple textbooks were laying on my table, someone must have dropped them off while I was getting the tour.

As much as I wanted to go out and see if I could find Gale Force I stuck around to get a head start on studying magic.

I didn't skim the pages this time, instead I opened to the first chapter and took my time with each page.

Evidently the unicorns at my school had been right about one thing: this was boring.

There were no tales of epic battles between master wizards, nothing about interesting experiments that inevitably resulted in gigantic explosions, just really boring facts about how a few ponies from thousands of years ago spent decades studying and researching magic.

A frustrated groan escaped me upon finishing chapter one. I flipped through the book til I found the section on actual spells. It was about time I did something other than shape changing.

I glanced out at the sun before starting. It was getting close to the horizon now, I'd probably have four hours or so until it would be lights out.

Before starting on anything in the book I figured it would be a good idea to work out how that horn actually worked. I allowed a familiar sensation to build again, it was how I shape changed but it seemed like I could do something else with it.

A harsh grunt escaped my mouth as I tried to figure out what I could do with the glow around my horn. I took a deep breath and followed my instincts, hoping I would have some inherit knowledge of how to utilize it.

I tried... something. The light bounced around, never quite escaping.

I tried something else. The light quivered and shined brighter before settling into its original form.

Another effort resulted in the light throwing a green spark of fire out. Which caught on the wall.

I lunged forward and stomped my hoof down on the small flame, snuffing it out. A small black smudge was left on the wall, I rubbed my hoof against it.

I hope no one notices that.

I didn't really understand how the light worked but I had some ability to alter it. How I was altering it wasn't really clear. It wasn't so much that I was generating magic so much as I was changing the light itself, the light brought magic about on its own. That glow was tapping into something I didn't really understand.

This new understanding demanded I take a look at the actual instructions for casting spells. The first one I looked at was for levitation, the book described it as the universal spell. I took that to mean there would quite literally be no excuse for not knowing it, considering that two year old children typically have that spell mastered I had already taken that as a given.

The book barely bothered to fit a single paragraph in to describe the spell. If I had to guess, previous grades had likely thoroughly gone over this one.

Frequency: 50 (Neutral)

Fre. Shifts: No

Output: Varies (More for weight and surface area)

Out. Shifts: No

Emotional Catalyst: None

Physical Catalyst: None

Side Effects: None

Special Properties: None

“...” I blinked a couple of times at the words before me. “...What does this mean?”

The only clue I had was the word neutral, it seemed to imply that “frequency”, whatever that was, gravitated towards that... Setting? Sure, setting.

A glow wrapped around my horn yet again. This time I didn't actually try to do anything with it, instead just letting it be. I focused my attention on the book, trying to extend my influence onto it.

My green glow wrapped around it, lifting it up far too quickly. The suddenness with which is snapped into the air caused me to let it go, sending it up into the ceiling.

The book impacted against the ceiling with a loud thud, leaving a barely visible chip in the ceiling's material. The book fell back to the floor no worse for wear.

I glanced towards the door, hoping no pony heard that. When no one came by after a few moments I resumed my practice.

Rather than pick the book up with my hooves I tried putting it back on the table with magic.

The usual glow surrounded the book, jerking it up in front of me. It was still too fast but I didn't lose my focus this time. I made an effort to move it less slowly over the desk, which didn't work at all as it once again blasted over to it.

At least I was maintaining my grip on it.

It was apparent to me at that point that I couldn't just make it go slower or faster on whim. I reflected on what output could mean before realizing I had control over how strong that glow was. The light around my horn and the book decreased very slowly, eventually the book drifted down towards the desk on its own.

I made an effort to raise it back up to where I had been holding it but couldn't lift it at all. I was however, able to move it from side to side fairly easily. I increased the power I was sending out until the book reversed its drift back up.

Apparently if I wanted to move something slowly I needed to use as little power as needed for the object, moving something faster required more.

I wonder what my weight limit is...

I wrapped my aura around the same book before trying to grab another book. The first book fell as I levitated the second.

I glanced between the two books for a moment before backing up until they both were in my line of sight. My aura threw itself over both books simultaneously, the light wavered at first before gaining a firm grip. Both books snapped together immediately.

A sigh escaped my mouth as I struggled with the spell.

It took a few attempts to part them at all, this was due to the two separate auras fusing when they came together. Essentially they were treated as one object by the spell. I had to mentally split my focus on where I wanted the objects to go if I wanted to move them separately.

My eyes widened as a few memories of unicorns moving multiple objects around simultaneously popped into my head.

How is that even possible!?

I gently, for once, placed both books back down before turning to my bed in the corner of the room.

My aura stretched itself over my bed, the fabric of my covers and pillow pulled tightly into the mattress. I focused on raising it just slightly over where it was, I didn't want a repeat of the book with something that big.

...But it didn't budge.

I allowed my horn to glow a little brighter.

...But it didn't budge.

My horn glowed much brighter.

...But it still wouldn't budge.

I strained myself to make the glow as bright and large as it could be, which wasn't actually that much brighter.

The bed didn't do anything.

“I wonder if I might be out of shape,” I pondered.

I fell backwards onto the bed, staring up at the ceiling. I had made some progress but I was miles away from everypony else my age. I was gonna have to become the most devoted student this school ever saw if I would have any chance of catching up to my peers.

I get the feeling I'm gonna be spending a lot of time alone in here doing this...