Crossing Anthology Two

Jonah, Cole and Halie entered the library, Jonah was instantly at the grasp of Spike’s trademark soul creeping stare. Spike has been sweeping up the library floor with an old broom, the motions of the sweeping slowed as he stared at the mullet headed boy. Jonah had enough of this awkwardness between them; he raised his hands in confusion and looked back at Spike with a scowling set of eyes. Spike returned the same expression, he threw the broom he worked with to the ground and walked up the stairs behind him. Without knowing, Twilight had been talking since they entered the library, Twilight noticed Jonah’s distraction;

“Hey!”

Jonah directed his attention to the purple unicorn;

“Hm? Oh sorry. What was it you were saying?”

“I was saying that when Lemmour was here last year, Princess Celestia told him and me the story of your power’s origins. It turns out, you have a modified version of unicorn magic, and they are modified to be more powerful but are limited in variety. I have a hunch that if I used my magic on you, then you could be able to learn new abilities.”

The three were surprised that the very place they were investigating was the birthplace of the powers they possessed. They were confused while at the same time intrigued. Halie asked Twilight;

“How does this help Rarity? How is it going make her see that Ponyville is safe?”

“Because, if I can teach you three some new extraordinary magic, then you can show her what you learned. If she sees that you can perform the same tricks as I can, then she may feel safe enough knowing that she has multiple sources of powerful magic protecting her!”

The three looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders; they agreed to give Twilight’s plan a shot. Twilight smiled and said;

“Excellent! Your lessons begin now. You can feel free to stay for the night for more practice or studying. It’s always good to know the history of the magic you can perform.”

Twilight turned to one of the many bookshelves; she looked for a moment and used her magic to obtain a tattered, leather-bound, red book. She sent it into Jonah’s hands; the three friends gathered around to look through it. Twilight said to them;

“This is my first book I got about magic, it will help you three a lot.”

Looking through the old book, the three blew away obstructing dust to reveal lists of spells and hand drawn pictures of ponies from millenniums ago, creating their own magic. There were spells for energy, healing, telekinesis, mind reading, pyrokinesis, electrokinesis, atmosphere manipulation, gem tracking, and pages more. Twilight grabbed their attention;

“I’m going to try an energy spell; maybe it will unlock the ability for you to learn new magic.”

The three stood together, they watched as Twilight’s horn glowed a bright shade purple. Seconds later came a blast of greens, blues, reds, and whites. The lights encased the three, and they all fell to their knees. The light disintegrated into the air, the three stood to their feet again feeling light-headed. Twilight jumped to Halie’s side and said;

“Try telekinesis, focus your thoughts and power on the book that Jonah is holding.”

Halie looked to the red book Jonah held; he turned towards Halie to give her a clear view. Halie stared at the spine of the book, focusing her thoughts on levitating it. She extended her arm and aimed her palm to the book to better focus her energy. Cole and Jonah watched with anticipation, curious to see whether or not they could learn more than just the primary powers they possessed. Halie continued to try her hardest to move the book in anyway. Suddenly a spark formed in Halie’s mind, her hand began to glow a faint yellow. The light grew brighter and bigger, the opacity was at its fullest, and without her knowing Jonah’s body became surrounded in the same color. Jonah yelled;

“Woah! Hey! Halie!”

Halie’s eyes shot open, she saw Jonah surrounded in the same light as her hand was in. She swung her hand back on impulse, and Jonah went flying crossed the room, hitting his back on one of the bookshelves. Jonah sat up slowly, his back cracked. Halie looked at her hand and smiled;

“Twilight, you did it! We can learn new powers now!”

Twilight smiled, proud of her proven hypothesis. Cole’s mouth dropped; he instantly lifted the book that Jonah dropped in midair. He flipped through the book to find more complex spells; he found one that send frequencies to objects, making the selected object explode on impact. Cole walked to Twilight and crouched down to her to show her the spell he wanted to perform;

“I wanna do this one! How do I make shit blow up?”

Twilight glanced over the spells description;

“Oh the fragmentation spell, it looks really difficult; it’s recommended that you master telekinesis and pyrotechnics before trying it.”

“Damn. Well I’m gonna try it!”

Twilight rolled her eyes;

“If you’re going to do it, do it outside.”

“Sure.”

Cole took the book with him and exited the library, giddy to try out what he discovered. Jonah stood up and fixed his damaged mullet. He tried to use telekinesis on one of the books on the shelves behind him, he focused for roughly thirty seconds determined to move at least one book. His hand glowed a calm blue color, and a small book levitated in front of him. Jonah smiled at his success, and twisted the book around with his fingertips. Then something in his mind struck him, it was a flashback to when he was of the age of three.

It was the year 1999; Jonah and his older brother were outside shooting each other with plastic squirt guns filled with water. At this age, Jonah was not able to perform his ice power he had gotten a decade later; instead he had to use his wits and raw stealth to blast Seth with water. Going up against Seth was no use; the older brother would often use his own telekinesis to maneuver the water gun into the tiny crevices that Jonah hid in that Seth could not physically reach. Seth would fire water at Jonah until he was on the ground in brutal defeat. Seth would look down at his dominated younger brother and laugh childishly. It was during the moment of defeat that Jonah would conceal his weapon behind him and unscrew cap of the water supply, then swing the uncovered weapon up to sling water into Seth’s face. Jonah’s flashback ended, the book was on the floor while his hand remained elevated. Jonah wasn’t bothered by the flashback; to him it was only a mere memory that triggered when he performed the very power that Seth used most.

An explosion was heard from outside the library. Jonah, Halie and Twilight exited the front door to investigate the noise. A black streak was left in the burned grass; it led to a large rock that had been moved some. The opposite end of the steaming grass showed Cole on his rump, his hair was blown back and his face had been covered in ash. Halie gasped and ran to Cole, helping him up and holding him close. Cole announced that he was just fine. Jonah used his new found telekinesis to levitate the spell book that Cole dropped into his hands. Jonah flipped through the book, and found a spell under the “advanced” section. Jonah became curious and pointed it to Twilight, Twilight’s eyes jittered;

“The age spell? There’s no way you can do that, I can’t even do it. The age spell is only for the highest level unicorns.”

Jonah did not let Twilight’s facts dissipate his interest; he picked a dandelion from the ground and stuck it in the page containing the spell’s information for later study.

The night came. Cole and Halie had gone back to Applejack’s barn to retire for the night. Jonah took advantage of Twilight’s offer and decided to stay overnight and read more about the many spell books she supplied. Jonah opened the tattered book back to the page he marked the dandelion with; he read more about the age spell, learning that only few ponies have been able to use it successfully and consistently. Twilight was getting ready for bed; she walked into the lobby where Jonah sat on the floor. She let her curiosity stroll her way behind Jonah to see what he was reading so deeply about. Twilight giggled;

“You still want to learn that spell don’t you?”

Jonah nodded in agreement, Twilight use her telekinesis to lift a plant up from one of the bookshelves. Her power carried the plant to the floor in front of Jonah, she said to him;

“It’s good to start out small, but let me know how you do. I’m going to bed; don’t be up too late, okay?”

Jonah gave no response; he glanced at the book again, then to the plant. The plant was a white flower, thin with skinny petals. Jonah began to focus his energy on the plant, aiming both palms at it, trying to get it to reverse to its younger budding state. Hours passed, no visible changes could be seen in the white flora, but Jonah remained determined. Another matter of hours flew by, Jonah sat in his same location, and he could feel the blood gather and clot beneath his thighs. More hours came, his senses became higher; the hairs of his head scrapped the small particles of his scalp as they pushed up and out. His eyes stung as the tiny red vessels stiffened around the dry white sphere they hugged. Each breath he took rocked each of the puny hairs deep in his nostrils. The hours passing became challenging, Jonah’s own gravity and weight were betraying him. He would constantly slouch over in exhaust, and then quickly pick himself back up. The process repeated itself for many nights to come.

One month later:

Jonah would take breaks during the day, but during the night was when he put all his focus into performing the age spell. Over the month, the only souls that died were the ones of the many plants Jonah would experiment on, and often neglect their need for hydration or sunlight. The amount of time Jonah spent with the plants, became concerning to his friends. Cole would sometimes stay at Twilight’s house with Jonah and practice magic with him, rarely would Jonah sleep at Applejack’s barn. Cole perfected the fragmentation spell, and would blow up many stacks of blank paper and scrolls until Twilight would catch him and scold him for performing such a hazardous spell inside the library. One night came, Twilight tried to get Jonah to rest from his study;

“Now, Jonah. I’m pretty big on learning and studying myself, but you’ve got to stop trying to get this spell to work. The age spell takes years to perfect, like I’ve said, even I can’t do it. Plus let’s not forget why I even suggested learning new magic.”

Twilight’s intentions with the magic had been met weeks ago already. Jonah and Cole had finally gotten Rarity’s attention and showed her a marvelous display of what they like to call their “dual-firework spell.” It was a massive show of lights and explosions, with the exciting sounds of crackles and pops, all spread out across the star filled night of Ponyville. Rarity, for the first time in over a month took a step out of her home. Since then her friends have been getting her reacquainted with Ponyville, and calming her worries. Jonah knowing this, argued with Twilight;

“It’s just somethin’ I wanna try. Plus Rarity is all better now.”

“Rarity may not be the only pony who could get stuck in the same situation! And this age spell isn’t just something you want to try anymore, it’s become an obsession!”

Jonah gripped his mullet, trying to think of an argument;

“Twilight, I think I need to learn this. I don’t know what it is but when I found this spell, it just screamed at me to try it!”

Twilight stomped the ground of the library;

“Fine, keep sitting there.”

Twilight walked up the stairs of her library with frustration;

Jonah kept focusing on the flower in front of him. One hour passed and Cole came by;

“Hey, buddy. I hardly see you anymore at Applejack’s. Come on, take a break from that and let’s grab a bite to eat.”

“Hang on, Cole. I’m still workin’ on this.”

Cole rolled his eyes, he kneeled to Jonah. He raised his hand to his face and fake slapped him to distract him;

“Come on! You need to take a break for once, I know General Canis hasn’t said anything in a while but MY GOD, you’ve been sitting here like a damn Chinese monk or something!”

Jonah smirked a little. Cole could tell he was getting somewhere, he continued;

“Are you a chink, Jonah?”

Jonah chuckled, trying to hold his laugh and concentrate on his project at the same time. Cole bucked his teeth and pulled the skin around his eyes to squint them;

“Do you rike a shalty egg rorr, Jonah-san?”

Jonah laughed aloud, no longer holding back. Cole laughed with him, Jonah added to the joke with a fake Asian accent;

“Wow mishter Cole-shan, I sure hope your new baby ishn’t a girl, or elshe I may have to put her in shweat shop, becaushe I Chineshe!”

Cole busted into laughter, slouching over and pounding the floor with a balled fist. After a few moments of laughter, Cole wiped his eye of a happy tear;

“Okay, come on zipper-head… Jonah?”

Cole looked down to see Jonah, he was passed asleep. The laughter broke the camel’s back and knocked Jonah out. It was understandable; he had not had a goodnights rest in many weeks. Cole lifted Jonah off the ground with telekinesis, and carried him back to Applejack’s barn, leaving the spell book and plant behind them.

By the time Cole returned to the barn with his sleeping friend, it was still morning. Halie was kneeled over the toilet seat in the hall bathroom, across from their bedroom. Halie had been sick from her pregnancy every morning for the last few weeks; Applejack would often be behind her to give her comfort as she let her twisted stomach release itself. She heard Cole coming up the steps, she leaned her weary and sick head towards the door to see him. She and Applejack were surprised to see Jonah with him, more so to see him knocked out and levitating at the hand of Cole’s power. Halie gathered her strength and stood back up to go see her friend. Applejack called out to her;

“Be careful, and watch where yer steppin’ Sugarcube.”

Halie tumbled over her own footsteps as she went to check on her sleeping friend. Cole had just laid Jonah onto the bed. Halie staggered to Cole. She grabbed onto him for support, saying to him;

“Cole… I feel so sick…”

Cole held Halie close; he stroked her blonde hair, and gave her encouraging words with a soothing voice;

“It’s only your first trimester; it will be over soon… Soon we’ll have our beautiful little son or daughter, to love and to care for.”

“We still haven’t come up with a name.”

“Maybe we should figure that out once we know what the gender will be.”

“I wonder who the baby will look like; I’d like it to have your rosy cheeks.”

Halie giggled, Cole chuckled in response and said;

“I’d like it to have your delighting eyes.”

The two held each other for a moment, embracing each other in happiness and excitement for their child’s arrival, even though it was still expected to be eight months away. Cole kissed Halie’s forehead, he said to her;

“Lay down in the bed with Jonah for a while, you need your rest, and so does he. Yell for me if you need anything, okay?”

Halie nodded, she slowly moved to the side of the bed where Jonah wasn’t, she slipped herself under the soft and warm covers and shut her eyes. Cole walked to the window and pulled down the curtains so that Halie could rest without so much bright sunlight. Cole exited the room with four brief words;

“I love you, Halie.”

Halie smiled in rapture and returned;

“I love you, Cole.”

Cole shut the door, and Halie slept, wrapped in a cocoon of sentiment.

The rest Halie felt that day could only be described as magic; she and Cole had never been as close as they were just then. It was the very definition of beauty, a bond that began with Cole as on edge as a cricket evolved and blossomed into the climax of his and Halie’s lives. No sort of hardships could break them; they were locked together in harmony and pure love.