Author's Note

Will no longer be putting my normal warning at the top anymore. Figure those who are still reading get the point by now.

Side note: Apparently my fic has been included in a group that denounces fics and claim them as unreadable and other such things. Not sure if this is a violation of rules or anything but thought you all should know. I myself don't let others judge what a fic is or isn't so read on and make your own judgements.

As for me, I will continue to write and upload no matter what cause perseverance as well as the fact you cannot judge a fic based on two chapters, plain wrong. My upload schedule, bar the unseen, should be every Wednesday or Thursday.

Have a wonderful day everyone and enjoy the fic.

PS: Found a few editorial mistakes so am correcting them, if you see this message that means I already went and fixed them.

Chapter Three: A Race, The Current, A Pegasus’ Channels, and Dietary concerns.

The Alter Accords

Chapter Three: A Race, The Current, A Pegasus’ Channels, and Dietary concerns

It had been a hard week, bucking apples, promising others to meet his brothers and overall acting friendly in a weirdly over friendly, least for him, town. ‘Not that it’s a bad thing, but I keep expecting the other horseshoe to drop any moment and have to start making a mad dash for my life.’ He stretched out his wings with a smile. ‘Well at least now I am cleared to fly, had been soooo long since I took to the skies, let’s get the scent of the wind in my mane once more.’

He took off from his grounded cloud bed, which had been the talk of the town asking why he didn’t have a home to go to. His answer was simple. “I like to look at the sky while I sleep, the stars twinkle really lovely at night and are very soothing.” ‘After all they are half the reason I took the name Starshifter in the first place.’

Taking off slowly feeling his wings beat through the air each time he slowly gained altitude before flying off. Applejack had given him the day off and he was happy for it. ‘Flying all day after about a week and a half without was almost as bad as…hmm I can’t remember but I am sure there was a time.’ That thought though cast his mind half to the reason he first came to Ponyville in the first place. ‘With Twilight a no go for answers, I suppose I will just have to let my past go. Five years though of pros and cons, five years of travel: pro, five years of searching: con, five years of new sights and experiences: pro, five years with ONLY those sights and experiences: con. I am sure my ability is tied to why I have no memories before five years ago.’

So caught up in his thoughts he didn’t even hear Rainbow Dash catch up to him and start speaking to him. “I said HEY!”

The sudden interruption caused him to miss a beat of his wings and drop down a few feet in the air. “Oh hey Dash, didn’t hear you there. S’up.”

The rainbow maned mare just smiled as she seen him flapping with no trouble. “Well you said when you got better you would like a race, so lets do this, from here to AJ’s barn what do you say?”

Velox knew he had absolutely no chance at winning. “Sure why not, I need to stretch my wings anyways.”

“I won’t try to embarrass you too bad then.” She said with the cockiest grin ever seen.

The grin was shared by Star as he looked at her. “Sure you won’t.”

“Flying backwards for that last stretch was cruel you know that right.” The dark blue Pegasus said to RD. The race wasn’t even close as she easily outpaced him even going so far as to fly backwards for the last bit…somehow. “I swear that shouldn’t be possible at that speed.”

“Told you I was the fastest pony in Equestria.” That cocky grin hadn’t left her face at all since the start of the race. “I mean you were close to matching me when I was flying backwards like that.” The giggle that punctuated that statement hurt almost as much to his pride as it did to his ego all at once.

“Ya ya you said and you are now most likely right. I didn’t believe it before, though the rainboom thing should have spelt it out all the way for me, but hey there was always hope before now.” Truly hope joined his pride and ego in taking a hit.

Giving him a pat on the back her grin turned into a friendly smile. “Hey at least it was a good race. I mean if you get abit better you might just barely make it into the Wonderbolts.” She then looked at the sun. “Anyways I got to go, the kids are expecting me at the school house today to join them for a game of dodge ball, want to join?”

‘Ok brain status report, pros and cons go. Pro: get a chance at revenge for the loss of the race. Con: could get our flanks handed to us. Pro: get to have fun. Con: get our flanks handed to us by foals. Pro: get to make kids laugh. Con:…get our flanks handed to us by foals?’ Pros outweighing the cons he nodded. “Sure why not, sounds fun.”

The two of them flew overhead to the school as Dash decided to make small talk. “So what brought you to Ponyville? Well besides the weirdness? Most ponies tend to stay away from here cause of it.”

He would have shrugged if not for flying. “Honestly, I just like to travel, been doing it for the last five years now.” He left out the part of what he was searching for of course. “Now though…I am not sure if I want to travel anymore.”

Perhaps it came out more depressed sounding then he meant or maybe Rainbow Dash was more empathic than others gave her credit for. “Something happen?”

“You could say that. Anyways is that the school house?” Of course it was a blatant attempt to change the subject but…it was true none-the-less.

Either distracted enough to forget the subject or because she also wanted to do so but when they landed she told him to stay here while she informed the teacher that it wasn’t just her to come to play.

He heard a bell somewhere in the classroom before suddenly a hoard of children came out all carrying brightly colored balls. Star thought it was adorable and he couldn’t way to see how fiercely the kids would play when he realized something way too late. Standing over the kids, who were now surrounding him in all direction including some even in the air, was Dash holding two dodge balls one for each hoof. “Well kids this is my friend Starshifter here, let’s give him a good initiation.”

There was the horrifying sound of adorable rawrs of cuteness from the kids as they hurled the deadly dodge balls at him.

All too soon school was back in session after the dodgeball session. The teacher, one Miss Cheerilee, a two toned pink maned Earth Pony with a darker pink as her coat color.
As was his hobby, though usually one that got him in trouble, he took a look at her cutie mark when no pony was looking. ‘Three flowers that look happy…all pink too, is she related to Pinkie Pie?’
“Class take your seats.” The kids would soon do that as she would smile. “Today we have two guests, you all know Rainbow Dash, however you may not all know Starshifter. Say hi class.” There was a chorus of hi’s directed at him after that. “Mr. Starsihfter.” She said addressing him politely a sure sign that she wanted something Star thought. “I was told you have traveled all over the world and seen many things. I was hoping you could tell us some things about your travels.”
‘I was right but I don’t mind.’ Moving over to the front of the class and smiling both at the teacher and the kids with a genuine smile he spoke. “Well honestly there isn’t much I can say.” The foals all gave an aww of disappointment before he held up his hoof. “You all didn’t let me finish. I said there isn’t much I can say at least in Equish, for you see, there are words in the languages across the world that seem not to translate well, but I will do my best to describe what I saw.” Taking a breath he would continue. “I suppose my first stop in a place that is Canterda. Its really cold and a lot of them speak with an accent for you see most of the ponies up there know Prench as well. Prench is the language that the ponies from Prance speak.”

The class was almost over as he was moving on to the next place he visited. “I would have to say that Germaneigh has the Best sa-” the bell rang and he realized it had just saved him from a really awkward moment. “salads, *cough* yes. Anyways seems I ate up more of your time then I would have though.”
Cheerilee just smiled and gave everypony their homework and sent them home telling them it was all due tomorrow.
Dash of course was drawn into his stories as well since he caught her more than once staring at him with the same eyed wonder that the kids had. Of course she showed no sign of it now. “Those were some decent stories you had. Not as cool as some of mine but cool enough. Though at the end there I thought you were going to say sausage, eww, how can anypony eat meet like that. I mean sure I know Pegasus like me CAN eat fish but we don’t have to.”
The thought of her eating fish suddenly brought about a random thought about sexuality that left him confused. ‘Why did you think that brain? That’s weird, you’re weird.’ “Well I have met many ponies that had gotten an acquired taste for it, and then there are others that have a problem getting protein from normal foods so they need to supplement it with meat. I mean you can’t fault them for health problems right?”
She seemed to think about it for a moment before nodding. “I guess, but the first one is still a horrible thing.” He just gave a shrug as Dash continued. “Though I have to say I thought you would have done better on the dodge ball teams, you were often the first one out.”
While Star would be the first to admit he wasn’t the smartest, or the quickest to solve a problem sometimes. He was observant if nothing else and he seen how competitive Dash was, not to mention how happy it made the kids when he was nailed. “What can I say; I just seem to be a lot slower than I thought.”
Dash frowned and opened her mouth to say something when suddenly there was a loud bang and two foals were in the doorway. “Rainbow Dash, Rainbow Dash!”
The little filly was orange with hot pink mane, she was also still without her cutie mark though that wasn’t the problem right now. Her large lavender eyes were welling up with tears. This caught both their attentions as Dash quickly asked. “What’s wrong Squirt?”
The filly seemed to be too emotional to speak, instead her friend was speaking. “It’s Apple Bloom.” Cried the white coated filly. Her mane was two toned lavender and pink but looked to have been disheveled in her haste. “We were walking back to her club house when Diamond Tiara took her homework page and threw it to the wind, then, then it flew into the Everfree,” a sense of dread was welling up in the dark blue Pegasus. “And then, and then, Manticore.”
To say that both Dash and Star was flying out of the classroom would have been an understatement. “Dash go back and find Twilight or somepony who knows how to use location spells and knows how to teleport or move quickly, after all more people looking quickly the more quickly we can find her.”
Dash nodded though honestly she thought he should go back but reasoned she was quicker and could get to Twilight faster than him. “Alright, but you keep looking while I go get her.”
He gave a nod and kept towards the forest. ‘It’s a hunch but I have to check.’ Flying to where he had left his cloud house foundation he sat up there and scanned where he could see. It didn’t take him long especially cause of the scream of terror.
The manticore was right atop of her as they came into a clearing. Star was zipping down there as fast as he could when he seen a sight that would cause him some nightmares for a while to come. The manticore’s paw knocked the filly across the clearing and into a tree. What’s more is he could see the red bleeding scores that the claws left in the girl.
Not sure if it was a fatal blow or just a ko hit with some scratches didn’t matter to Star. ‘No one hits a kid EVER!’
A dark blue glow started to spread from his wings and covered his body. Once it covered him there was almost a sucking watery whoosh sound as he moved in quick fits and bursts at speeds that blinking would make you miss.
Slamming into the side of the chimera-like creature and growling an almost animal like growl he shouted. “You want to hit a foal, motherbucker; then try me on for size instead!”
What the angry Pegasus didn’t know is this manticore recognized him; it was the same one that tried to make a meal of him when it was stopped by his rescuer that time. The creature lifted up its tail and whipped it forward sending a few spines at him.
Not a single one hit him, as each one that would instead was quickly preceded by a wet whooshing sound followed by hitting moisture. A spine, a whoosh, a spine a whoosh each time. To say it upset the manticore would have been stating it lightly. It infuriated it and caused it to charge the Pegasus that was defying it. This of course resulted in a surprisingly wet manticore as each time it charged and seemed to have Star in its claws it hit the ground instead after a whoosh was heard and a splash of moisture to its body.
“Not sure if you can understand me or not, but one of your kind understood Zecora when she saved me so this is your one chance. Leave now or you die.” The manticore had made its choice, it wouldn’t back down again as it leapt at him. There was a moment of pity and sadness in the Pegasus’ eyes before he sighed. “You chose poorly.” There was a whoosh as the manticore landed where he was only to be wet once more and unknowingly to it Star was in the air back hooves straight down as there was another whoosh as he came speeding down…right on the neck of the manticore.
Of course right before he delivered the final blow Twilight teleported her and the other girls into the clearing to see him whoosh down and break the creature’s neck. “Buck, I have to get Bloom to the hospital.” Star said not seeing the others there. Of course he knew right away they were there when he heard Applejack call out Apple Bloom’s name.
Twilight however was already there with a flash of violet light. A quick diagnostic spell and she sighed in relief. “It is ok AJ, she just has a few minor cuts and a minor concussion though we should get her to the hospital so it doesn’t grow into something worse and I can’t really teleport with everypony back but I can take her with me.” She barely had time to finish the sentence before Applejack was telling her to go. A violet flash later she and Bloom were gone.
Of course now that she was gone, everypony could think about what had happened. Of course it was Fluttershy who spoke up first…well not so much spoke but was vocal in her sadness. Running over to the dead manticore and cuddled it gently while crying.
Velox remembered she was a caretaker of animals and not sure if that was one of her charges or not he still said what he said. “I am sorry I had to kill it Fluttershy, but I did warn it to leave, I couldn’t leave with Bloom like she was and with me using The Current. It would have hurt her or worse.”
Fluttershy either didn’t hear him or ignored him, though not the rest. “What may ah ask is ‘The Current’ and why couldn’t ya use it to rescue Bloom quicker.”
Star just let the blue glow die out as he shook the water from his coat. “Ok I have to start with abit of a magic lesson, do you mind?” She just gave him a glare. “Fine I will make it as quick as I can. All ponies have magic, some can use it more easily than others, Unicorns for example can use it outwardly in a visible way. Pegasus not so much in that they can move weather, fly, and land on clouds with no trouble. Finally Earth Ponies use it passively, using it in their strength and connection to the land.”
“Yes dear we are all aware of that.” Came the couture countess of the group.
“You would be surprised who doesn’t.” He half muttered to himself. “Anyways that is all I did, manipulate weather.”
“Horseapples!” The rainbow maned flyer of the group called. “I work as the head weather mare of Ponyville and have never seen or heard of anypony doing what you did.”
Star sighed, he hated explaining this as half of it was in the feel of what he does, but he always said if it was important he would explain it. So he let his wings glow, but only his wings and flapped them showing them all as they slowly gathered moisture from the air to coat it. “I am manipulating weather, after all, what is a raincloud or stormcloud but moisture.” He let the glow spread down to one hoof as he waved it around gathering more moisture from the air to his hoof almost in a ball. “I am just…really, really good at the fine manipulation of it one a really fine scale.” The glow spread to his other forehoof as he tossed the ball of water back and forth between them as he sat on his haunches. “What I do is kinda use the water as a springboard for myself, except with it touching me, I can make it move with such force that it moves ME instead. Thus making move really quickly, though will most likely feel sore tomorrow even with a Pegasus’ natural durability like we show in crashes. That and I am kinda siphoning magic from other areas that a Pegasus passively uses their magic towards…like flight.”
Pinkie was the one that chimed in this time. “Oh oh but we saw you flying.”
He shook his head and tossed the ball up as if to use it as a demo. “If the ball of water is hanging in the air like that is it flying?”
Everypony seemed to understand that but Applejack seemed to have one more question. “Ok then why didn’t ya just dash in with that Current dealy and rescue Bloom before she got hurt?”
Star looked to Dash as he spoke. “Dash I think you can relate how a Pegasus’ natural protections extend to anypony she touches while in flight.”
The racer just nodded and sighed. “It’s not like I am a egghead or anything, but, the weather team and most Cloudsdale ponies is trained to rescue ponies as they fall. Something called transference happens where the magic that protects Pegasus in flight kinda like a safety net of magic or something.”
AJ nodded and understood. “Well as I said earlier, when I am using the current I am kinda pulling the magic from other passive areas of a Pegasus’ normal abilities…that being one of them. If I were to dash to Bloom to pick her up well…” he pointed to a flower nearby in the clearing waiting till everypony was watching, then shoot the ball of water at a decent speed at the flower. The speed wouldn’t have meant anything to anything alive except maybe cause a bruise, however to the flower it scattered its petals everywhere after bowling through it. “I would have been the water ball there and Apple Bloom would have been that flower. I think I will leave you to your imaginations to come up with the results if I tried.”
The farm mare just paled, even through her coat at the thought, Rarity gasped, Dash got a tiny bit green around on her face as her hoof came to her muzzle, and Pinkie…was Pinkie. No pony knew what she was thinking about except it caused her head to tilt to the side. Fluttershy seemed to have overhead everything in her grieving. “Starshifter did the right thing, though I wish it didn’t have to be like this, he still did the right thing. Anyways we need to get out of the Everfree before anything else tries to get us…that is, if it’s ok with everypony.”
A nod was given by everypony along with a yawn from Velox. “Pegasus magic isn’t really meant to be used like that so it is kinda exhausting, so don’t mind me, still plenty of juice in the can to check up on Bloom.”

The walk was a quiet and solemn on the way to the hospital though everypony cheered up when they got there and heard that Bloom was awake and just fine. The bump on her head, while indeed a minor concussion, called for nothing more than an overnight stay for monitoring. The cuts on her side, while more serious, were fixed with a few stitches as they hadn’t gone too deep.
“She will have some war wounds to show off to her friends and some scars, but her coat should cover them so no pony will be able to tell unless they get up close to feel.” Nurse Redheart said to them. “A few days rest after that and not too much activity should make her right as rain.”
Star had met her last time he was here, but was in too much pain to really pay attention to her. She was a white Earth Pony with a bubblegum pink hair with a red cross on her flanks as her cutie mark.
AJ was more than relieved and shook Redheart’s hoof so hard she practically lifted her off the ground with each one. “Thank ya so much Nurse Redheart, ah can’t thank ya enough.”
While the news and the rejoicing came and went Twilight had been told of what happened as well as how it was done and that is where Velox came in overhearing the tail end of the conversation to Dash and Rarity. “Theoretically it’s possible and it would explain why he has that book, though he said it was his brothers.”
Considering what had happened, knowing how seeming close the girls were to each other, it wasn’t hard to figure out what they were talking about. “Ya the book is mine, I lied cause well, how often do you find a Pegasus interested in that stuff. Most ponies will just look at a pony weird if they say ‘I want to learn about magic’ when they have no horn.”
Twilight blushed at having been caught talking about a pony behind their backs. “Sorry didn’t mean to go about talking like that I was just caught up in what Dash and Rarity were saying and couldn’t help but think out loud. Though it does explain how you have such a buildup of mana channels. It is consistent with a lot of passive abilities in other pony species and considering you have built them up it makes it look like you cast magic making your overall network a lot larger in appearance even if your well isn’t that deep. It also explains how you avoided another problem most have if they come to that naturally.”
“The Gridlock Conundrum right?” He asked much to Twilight’s surprise.
“You know about that?” Her eyes were lighting up just like whenever she found a good book.
He gave a nod and smiled. “Found out about it by accident from a doc that I met before a couple of years ago, said ‘if I didn’t know how to manipulate my mana so well that I would have had magical burnout by now and either died or became sickly’.”
Bouncing on her hooves Twilight was so excited to hear somepony, even non Unicorns, knowing about magic. “That’s right, though I wonder how you came up with the idea to manipulate weather on such a fine scale such as that.”
Chuckling as he gazed up remembering. “Novo thought of it.” Hearing no pony speaking he looked down and realized they looked confused. “Oh sorry Novo is my Unicorn brother. He specializes in fine manipulation of telekinesis and high level transmutation. He said and I quote ‘All is one and one is all’. When I figured out the meaning of that I realized that there is more to everything then we realized and looked abit deeper and found The Current.”
Twilight suddenly looked confused, she wasn’t the only pony either as even AJ had joined them along with Pinkie and Fluttershy. “Wha’ does that mean.”
The dark blue Pegasus just grinned and chuckled loudly. “Sorry but I can’t tell you cause if I did it would lose a lot of its meaning and importance…it’s something each pony must learn to truly grasp its meaning.”
The Unicorn prodigy smiled and gasped “Exactly like the magic of friendship, if somepony tells you, it’s not even close to what the real thing is and you will over look how deep it’s meaning is.”
Blinking and not really getting what she meant he just nodded “Ya, sure like that.”
“Mind if I examine your mana channels tomorrow, I only got a cursory glance at them when I examined your wing and it might provide more clues to how others can avoid the conundrum.” The hopeful Unicorn asked with large pleading eyes.
Star, for all his travel and experience, found he couldn’t bring himself to say no to that face. “Fine, but you have to ask AJ here to spare me for a while so you can poke and prod me to your heart’s content…wait that didn’t come out right.”
Of course as he said that last part there was a blush from Twilight and a giggle from some of her friends. Giving a cough to cover the embarrassment she nodded and looked to her honest friend to see if she would. A nod in the affirmative later and they had decided to start at noon tomorrow. With that AJ headed home to tell Big Mac and Granny Smith how Bloom was coming along. Rarity took her sister, the little white Unicorn filly named Sweetie Belle, home with her. Dash flew off with the orange Pegasus filly named Scootaloo promising to show her a trick to help make her feel better.
With the foals all gone that left Star, Fluttershy, and Twilight alone. “Wait, where did Pinkie go?”
Seems the Pegasus was the only one concerned as her two friends seem to just accept her vanishing act as normal. “So it’s a tad early but would you too like to join me for a snack at a café?” Fluttershy seemed to nod softly and smile to the invitation from the lavender pony.
The violet maned Pegasus was about to decline when a quick image of something passed through his mind quickly reminding him of something he had been holding off on for a while now but needed to take care of. “Twilight and Fluttershy, while I would love to join you I have something I need to take care of, so raincheck on that for me for another time.”
Twilight looked disappointed, seems she wanted to talk more to somepony who knew about magic if Star had to guess, while Fluttershy looked slightly relieved. ‘Guess she is still upset at me about the manticore.’
Flying off and separating from the mares he headed to the lake he uses to wash up. ‘Thanks to Rainbow Dash, I kinda have an idea of what the locals would think if I did this in the open so, best hide this for now.’ The afternoon was filled with him cutting a stout pole and grabbing a line from his saddle bags to fish. Like he had told Rainbow Dash earlier how some ponies eat meat for the pleasure of the taste and how others needed it cause their bodies were a bit dysfunctional, he was of the latter type. ‘Ya I like the taste of flesh sure but my body needs it as well, the cravings are just my body’s way of telling me, HEY I need some protein here. The slip about sausage was it screaming as loudly as possible. I got real lucky cause of that bell…wonder if I hated those bells when I was young?’
The problem with fishing is that while catching was exciting for a few short moments, it left a lot of time to think to one’s self. Starshifter did too much of that and found himself instead looking over his time in Ponyville, contemplating if he should stay or go. The answer wasn’t simple at all; he wanted to stay for sure as the town was peaceful serene and friendly. On the other hand he didn’t want to risk exposing his secret to somepony who had, not too long ago, didn’t want anything to do with what might even have a hint of changeling to it.
Dinner for Star that night consisted of a lot of fish over an open fire that made him wish that ‘The Current wasn’t water, but fire based’ to get the fire started easier.

The next day he showed up for work and when asked by Applejack why he showed up he simply said: “Twilight wanted me to show up at noon, till then my time is my own, so I came to help out boss.” For the next five minutes he got a lecture on how she wasn’t his ‘boss’ but his friend who just so happened to be paying him to help out around the farm. Shrugging and just accepting that rather than arguing with a stubborn mare he went off to buck the trees best he could.
He only got a third of what AJ had done before it was time for him to leave. “Going to go now AJ and wash up, after all if Twilight is going to poke and prod me, got to smell nice right?” He said winking to the farm mare that gave a slight blush and told him to ‘git’.
He only got to the Golden Oaks Library right near noon, a few minutes before and knocked on the door. “One moment!” Came a non-female voice.
‘Wait did I have the wrong tree house? I could have sworn Derpy told me to come here when I first came to Ponyville, am I remembering wrong? SWEET CELESTIA is my memory getting worse am I going to forget-.’ Before his thoughts could get the better of him the door opened.

Standing in the doorway stood a tiny reptile looking creature. It would have only come up to halfway of the height of a normal pony, less so on one the size of Big Mac’, with purple and green scales covering his body, the latter coloration being on his belly and fins.

“Can I help you?” He asked politely staring at Star with those slit pupils.

Coming out of his musings on what he was staring at he shook his head. “Sorry I think I got the wrong place, I was looking for Twilight Sparkle. Sorry to bother you.”

Turning around to walk about he was stopped by the voice of the youngling. “Oh you’re the pony Twilight has been talking about, ya this is where she lives, come on in.” Taking a few steps inside he puffed out his chest suddenly “and if you’re wondering, I am a Dragon.”

‘Oh that is what he is, never would have guessed that.’ “I kinda figured, I mean they are pretty distinct.” By the look on the tiny dragon’s face he had caught him in the lie and made him sigh. “Ok ok, I had no clue you got me.”

Looking suddenly downtrodden he only shuffled his foot on the ground and mumbled out a reply. “Probably cause I’m a baby dragon.” Not sure if that was meant to be heard or not Star said nothing to show he heard it. “Anyways Twilight will be up from the basement shortly, she was just getting some testing items.”

The question of ‘what was she getting exactly’ wasn’t voiced as he didn’t have time as Twilight came up from the basement carrying all kinds of weird equipment ranging from something that looked to go on the head of a pony, to wrist straps, tubes, something that looked like a mouth bit, and a few others things that couldn’t even be described without adding mad scientist in front of it. Star looked back over to the dragon quickly with a worried look hoping against hope that he would have good news for him. Instead the dragon was looking away and heading to the kitchen leaving him to his fate.

“Thank you Spike I will take it from here.” She called out to her assistant with a smile before looking at Velox. “Ok let’s start with a few base magical readings on your AF in your innate state.”

Thanks to Novo he knew what AF, it stood for Arcane Force and was often used at a measure of a Unicorn’s magical power. “So your wanting to see if my AF is higher or lower than the norm right?”

A nod was all he got as he walked over to her as she started levitation some of the scraps, the cap and more all to fit over him. “I already calibrated this so it should be accurate, now just stay still for a few minutes while this gets a base line.” Looking over a nearby object that had a needle going back and forth over a paper that it was rolling out she continued. “An average Unicorn adult has fifty AF in their body at rest and while focusing it’s a hundred and fifty, triple cause they are focusing and condensing their own internal mana to a focal point, in this case their horn. Meanwhile Pegasus and Earth Pony adults only have twenty and ten AF respectively and its all passive. In the case of Pegai in general its more spread out over many factors so their relative AF is only five or so. Earth Ponies are more focused and actually keep the rating of ten that is why often they are physically stronger than any Pegasus in general, exceptions not withstanding of course.”

Star could tell Twilight was in her element, both figuratively and literally as she had that bright look to her eyes while he himself already knowing that was actually drifting in and out of what she was saying, at least until an excited ‘OH’ was heard. “What, huh, I’m paying attention I swear!”

The Unicorn missed his exclamation as she was looking at the results of the read out. “That is very interesting. Your baseline is really high, at forty AF already higher than a normal Pegasus by double.” She was looking at the readings excitedly even as her horn was glowing and writing down notes with a levitating quill and parchment. “Now I want you to use that current thing you used on the manticore.”

To say he felt like a bug under a magnifying glass would have been about right, the way she was staring and scribbling on the parchment almost made him bolt. “R-right.” Concentrating and focusing on his wings he started to lazily flap them as they started to glow.

As they started to gather moisture he suddenly became aware of another set of eyes watching him. Glancing over he could see Spike peaking at them from the kitchen trying to act like he wasn’t but so obvious that he was.
“Do you want just my wings or the full thing?” He asked looking back to the Unicorn scientist as she was righting. She gave a nod wanting to see the full transformation as she sighed and slowly let the feeling of The Current over take him. All the moisture in the air was suddenly a part of him, extending his sense of touch to know everything in the library within a certain distance. His coat grew damp as the water clung to him as a second coat; he knew in worst case scenarios he could use the water as a cushion for blows, either if he fell or against something hitting him…even if it wasn’t a very good cushion. When he got into the full swing of it Twilight told him to hold it for a few minutes so the chart could stabilize to get an accurate reading.
By the time the readings came out Velox was sweating into the water, as he only ever used The Current in fits and bursts and never as a sustained effect for long. “That is interesting.”
Hearing her voice he spoke in abit of a strained voice. “Mind if I cut this then?”
Giving an almost absentminded ‘huh’ she looked over to him and realized what he meant “Oh sure go ahead.”
A relieved sigh later and the sound of water splashing against the floor of the library as the water that was clinging no longer obeyed the command to stick to him and instead returned to obeying gravity. “Thank Celestia; that is tiring.”
She was looking over the printout with a frown on her face, Star tried to ask what was wrong but all he got was a ‘shhhh’. It was ten minutes before she spoke. “Alright I think I can make heads and tails of this now.” Before he could ask of what she was already explaining. “Alright from the looks of it you temporarily boost your AF output by nearly Quadruple, even in a Unicorn that type of multiplication for focus is dangerous and will often lead to a Unicorn burning out or going so far as to drain their own life force to cast. It’s similar to what you are doing except almost like a furnace instead. What you are doing is putting pressure on your well to force it to pump at a higher rare and oversaturated your being while at the same time closing off channels of your mana that aren’t related to the effect. Once the initial reaction has started, the fuel you use becomes a lot less but still used in a steady amount, almost like a plasma reaction but with your mana and body instead.”
‘Brain status report, amount understood in that…what do you mean 0%, damn it brain you’re supposed to be smart.’ “Ummm what?” He asked both with a confused voice and look to him.
Twilight though continued to ignore him and continued on. “However once that pressure to your well is applied it no longer puts out any mana at all, as it closes itself off while the reaction is going so it’s not forced into cycle of supply and demand that can’t be cut off, which is good as it would mean if it did do that you would have died the first time you used it.” Looking over to him she smiled for a moment then frowned. “You are very lucky to have gotten it right the first time. One wrong step and you would have died.” Getting her curious face back on she was still scribbling on the parchment…or another parchment as it was. “You said your brother gave you the idea, but did anypony help teach you how to do that or did you discover it on your own?” Star confirmed the latter that he developed it on his own as she started to bounce on her own again. “If you were a Unicorn that would have been a new spell, that would have been so exciting, however at the same time it is not really anything new, just a more extreme version of what is already being done. So maybe it wouldn’t be a new spell…hmm anyways I would suggest if you ever try to teach anypony that you have a Unicorn around just in case your pupil can’t close their mana well after the reaction starts that way they don’t cause a vacuum effect to their well that will end with them killing themselves.”
‘Ok those parts I understood. Note to self, Don’t teach this to others without Novo…alone bad, Novo good for teaching. Brain, mark it under important and contract my mouth to say it anytime somepony asks.’ With his brain doing that he nodded. “Got it, lucky thy name is Velox and don’t teach without a Unicorn around.”
“Preferably two Unicorns as the reaction you cause is higher than a normal Unicorn adult which means they wouldn’t be able to stop it as their AF count is lower and less dense then the effect you produce.” She said writing that in her notes. “But if we can get other Pegai to use this technique it might revolutionize the weather industry or even add more capabilities to the royal guards arsenal.” Velox thought he heard her say something like, ‘and how they badly need it after Cadence’s wedding disaster’ under her breath before she smiled up at him. “Anyways this is just the preliminary tests, now for the blood tests, the active pinpoint tests, the-”

‘Body why must you be so angry with me, its Twilight’s fault she put you through the wringer.’ His body responded with angry throbs of exhaustion and pain from various parts of himself. ‘Well buck you too body, I see what my kind treatment of you gets me, next time you want a cinnamon bun from the cakes see if you get it.’ He was walking home and sighed looking up at the sky. ‘She tested me all day; I barely got a snack from Spike between her tests. Right now I just want to go to my bed, curl up and fall WHERE THE BUCK IS MY BED?!’
His mind screamed out as he was looking where his cloud bed was, instead there was only his saddlebags with a note on it. Moving close he picked it up and read it: ’Dear resident, you have been caught with an unlawful use of an errant cloud as well as the fact it was parked in a no loitering zone and have had it removed. This has been a warning and as such I told the weather team to come clean it up. There is no need to thank me for helping you obey the laws of the town. Filthy Rich. PS: tell your ‘friends’ that the trap door leads to a cesspool and should really look into moving it.’
The note crumpled as he ground it under his hoof as he closed his eyes breathing deeply. ‘Alright, breathe deeply, count to ten, and it will be better. One, two, three, fourfivesixseven-’ there was no more counting for Star at that point, instead he just shouted. “MOTHERBUCKER!!!”